Life on the Job Ain't Easy
by geeklover988
Summary: [DannyOC] Michelle Spencer is back in NYC and working homicide with her old friend Flack. The job is very time consuming and never pretty, but what happens when some of her coworkers are?
1. Chapter 1

CBS and the writers own the characters and the show not me…so don't sue, yeah?

* * *

_This all takes place some time after Lindsay leaves for Montana. After the trial she decides to stay there and not return to NY. Sheldon Hawkes, the ME has now replaced her as a CSI. Danny was upset for a while, especially since he went out there to be with her, but they talked it out and after a few weeks of moping, he decided that he was no use to anyone in such a depressing state and started to move on, that plus he got one of those talks from Mac. After that he knew he had to get his life back on track. He's still guarded, a few walls built up but he's getting there._

_Michelle Spencer is a 5'4 brunette with medium length brown slightly wavy hair, lightly olive/tan skin, brown eyes. ½ Greek and ½ mix of a bunch of other European countries. Grew up in Brooklyn, best friends with Don Flack Jr., both went to college together and families have been friends since they were babies. After graduating top five of her class at the police academy she were offered one of the head CSI positions in Albany, NY where she worked for three more years. But after an incident at a crime scene she transferred back to the city as a homicide detective._

* * *

Michelle's hair was down, slightly wavy, she were wearing black dress pants, heels and a burgundy button down. It was pretty early, around 7am, and yet the precinct was crowded people rushing around everywhere. Michelle wasn't even supposed to be in today but apparently there was some kind of crime explosion the past week and everyone was needed, even if it meant just sitting around and doing paper work. Michelle knew exactly who she was looking for, about six foot tall, dark hair, blue-eyed Detective Don Flack Jr. She were supposed to be shadowing him for the week, despite being the same ranking, it was "city protocol" as the lieutenant had explained to her this morning. She had tried to get a hold of Don for weeks, Michelle had mentioned she was moving back to the city, but never really got any further, like the whole thing about working with him. Apparently he was a hard guy to get a hold of, Michelle just hoped he got at least one of her messages.

"Michelle? Michelle Spencer?!"

She turned abruptly at the sound of her name. "CJ?" Michelle hugged the detective. "How are you?"

"Good! And you? What are you doing here Miss Albany?" he teased.

"I'm working here now. Missed the city too much. Anyway, have you seen Flack?"

"So you're the newb? That's fantastic! It'll be like having the whole academy gang back together. And Flack…hmm…he was called out to a scene yesterday and has been working on it ever since. He's probably across at the crime lab"

"Thanks CJ! I'll see you later"

"No prob! Hey we gotta go out for drinks later." He shouted back at Michelle as he walked towards his desk and she headed for the lab.

--

"Excuse me, is a Detective Flack here?" she asked the receptionist

"Third floor, Chem Lab."

"thanks"

When Michelle got to the third floor she just stood outside the elevator, completely lost. "this place is like a freaking maze" she mumbled trying to decide which direction would be the most productive.

"Looking for something?"

Michelle jumped, lost in her own thoughts, the voice startled her. "More like someone actually. I heard he was here, Detective Don Flack?"

"Ahh Flack, you must be the new girl."

She laughed. "It seems my reputation precedes me, Detective Michelle Spencer" Michelle smiled giving him her hand.

"Detective Mac Taylor, head CSI." He responded, returning the gesture. "You wouldn't happen to be the same Detective Spencer from the Upstate Crime Lab?"

"Actually I would. But now I'm here and working homicide with you 'city folk'"

He smiled. "Flack should be in Danny's office, they're just wrapping up a case. I'll take you."

"Thanks." They continued the conversation through the lab until they reached a glass office which contained two men. One clearly Don, who was far too big for the chair and table hunched uncomfortably over some papers, the other was shorter, dirty blonde, and had glasses, he sat chin in his hand, carefully scanning the material in front of him. Mac opened the door and knocked.

"Don, you have a visitor."

"Huh? Oh, uh ok Mac, who is it?" he said not looking up from his papers

"It's a Detective Spencer." At the mention of the name Flack's head shot up.

"Miche?"

Michelle smiled at the use of his nickname for her "Hey, Don" was all she could get out before he crushed her with a hug.

"What are you doing here? It's not a holiday?" he joked

"I'm the newb"

"You're the newb?"

"Yes, I'm the newb." Michelle confirmed again laughing.

"But…what? How? Michelle Spencer, explain." He scolded.

"I left you a bunch of messages, it turns out you're not that easy to track down there Donny".

He smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back if his head with his hand "Big case, what can I say?"

"Well, I have some paperwork of my own to get done. Spencer, you're always welcome to join the lab, if you ever decide to come back to the world of CSIs, I know we'd love to have you."

"Thank you, Detective Taylor, I might take you up on that. Sometimes I just have to urge to play with chemicals."

"Anytime, and please call me Mac. Oh and Danny, when you're done with this, the Menendez case work needs one more going over, before it gets sent to the DA's."

"You got it Mac." Michelle had almost forgotten someone else was there, his thick NY accent drew her in, made her curious and she decided to get a better look at him. He was a little bit on the shorter side for a guy, but not by much. Michelle could tell he was kinda muscular, and toned, his slightly snug green shirt showed it off. He wasn't too big though, just the right size for his body. And he had some pretty blue eyes hidden slightly behind his glasses. Needless to say, he was pretty attractive.

"Miche, this is Detective Danny Messer, CSI. Messer, this is Detective Michelle Spencer, she used to be one of the head CSI's in Albany and is now apparently working homicide with me." Don said introducing the two of you.

"Pleased to meet ya" Danny smiled, extending his hand.

"Likewise" she said returning the smile and shaking his hand.

"Well, it looks like I have to show Miche here around, you can handle all this right Messer?" The look on Danny's face said otherwise.

"Oh come on now Flack, I know you hate paperwork, but really using me as an excuse, now? Plus the L-T gave me a tour this morning." Danny smirked as a defeated Don sighed and sat back in the chair.

"So much for loyalty Spencer."

Michelle laughed. "I also noticed you had an obscene amount of paper files on your desk, if you want I can go through them while you do this?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, sure Flack. I know it'll take you a month to get through, plus I can't do anything without you this week, I'm shadowing you, remember? Plus I know all the shortcuts."

"There are shortcuts to paperwork?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, there's all sorts of ways to import information from the evidence and other databases so you don't have to spend time retyping all the basic factual stuff."

"Really?" Flack asked

"Really, really. If I decide I like you boys enough, maybe I'll show ya"

"Well, I'm just naturally likeable, Flack here, that's another story." Danny mused.

"Ha ha ha….you're a regular old comedian today aren't you Messer?" Flack retorted.

"Well as much as I'd love to stay I have the Everest of all mounds of paperwork to get through." Michelle said walking towards the door. "Nice meeting you Danny, I'm sure I'll be seeing you around."

He smiled, "Can't get rid of me now."

"Don, I'll see you back at your desk whenever you finish, then again I'll probably finish first…so I'll just see meet you back here" she laughed and winked at Danny.

"What is this, rag on Flack day? Get outta here Spencer, before I start telling embarrassing college stories!"

"And with that, I'm definitely gone" Michelle said making a quick exit for the elevator.

"I think she and I are gonna get along real well" Danny said as he watched her disappear into the elevator. "So how do you know her again Flack?" he asked turning back to his colleague, trying to remember if he had mentioned her before.

"You know all those pictures I have with my brothers and a girl, or me and a girl that you guys keep asking about, and I just keep saying it's my cousin?" Danny nodded vaguely remembering him and the boys teasing Don about how hot his relative was. "Well that's Michelle…she's not really related to me by blood or anything, but we've known each other forever. Our families are really close, her uncle and my dad we partners, her dad and brother are both big in the DA's, and her other brother is one of the publicists for the precinct actually, and we both were at the academy together."

"Ahh, gotcha……So you two ever uh….you know?"

"Me and Miche? Ha, yeah…for like a week right after highschool ended. It was one of those everyone thought we should date things, so we decided to try it out. It was really weird, kinda like dating a relative, so we ended it pretty quickly, no harm done. Our moms were pretty upset about it though." Don laughed. "Alright lets get back to this, because if she finishes before I do, I'll never hear the end of it."

Danny nodded and they got back to work.

--

About two hours later you stretched her arms out over her head, sore from all the typing. Haphazardly tossing the last case folder on top of the massive stack she had just gone through, Michelle mentally swore that if she got carpel tunnel Don was in some serious trouble. He had also not shown up back at his desk, figuring he still hadn't finished she decided to see if he and Danny wanted to take a lunch break. As she were heading back to the 3rd floor of the lab, Danny walked out of the elevator.

"Hey there newbie! Don't tell me you're done already?"

"Yup, I was just coming to see if you guys wanted to take a break for lunch? Im guessing you guys are still working." She said with a smile

"I finished my part, actually. Flack, however, is still going….I'm gonna go grab a slice, wanna come with?"

"Sure"

After they ordered and got theirr pizza, as well as a few slices for Don, Michelle and Danny decided to enjoy the weather and eat outside before heading back to work.

"So, Michelle Spencer, tell me about yourself" Danny said in between bites.

"Well, Daniel Messer, what do you wanna know?"

"Hmmm, just a summary will do for now I guess"

"Ok, well I'm 27, female, although if you ask Flack, CJ or any of my/their brothers, they'll deny it, about 5'4 on a good day. I grew up in Brooklyn, and Don and I have known each other since we were babies, his dad and my uncle were partners and they worked with my dad who's a DA and our mom's

are really close. I used to be one of the head CSI's in Albany, but I got into incident on a scene, explosion and it ruined the vision in my left eye, so I had surgery, got contacts that whole deal. And it made me realize that I missed the city and my family, they had an opening in homicide, so here I am….Oh and I have a dog too." Danny smiled slightly and nodded, absorbing the large amount of info she had just thrown at him.

"So did you uh-leave anyone behind back in Albany?"

"what, you mean like a boyfriend?" he shrugged "Nope, no time for one. Plus those country boys can't handle a city girl like me." Michelle said with a wink.

"It's definitely gonna be fun working with you newbie." Danny laughed.

"What can I say? I try. Be warned though, I can use awful puns and make bad jokes. And sometimes, I'm even more sarcastic than Flack."

"Not possible. But as for the bad jokes and puns, hang out with me for a week, I'll get it out of your system."

"We'll see Messer, we'll see….I guess we should get back before Don either dies from starvation or sends out a squad looking for us." She said standing up from the bench they were both sitting on.

"Oh please, you just wanna gloat that you finished before him"

"Ok, maybe that too." Danny just laughed and followed Michelle back into the building.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own CSI NY or any of the characters except the ones I made up…and that goes for all the chapters of this story**

It was finally Sunday, Michelle had a long and very jam packed first week at the precinct, and were on call both Friday and Saturday. Thankfully she had the day to herself. It was about one-thirty in the afternoon and Michelle had taken Rascal, her English Bulldog, for a walk while shopping for groceries for tonight's dinner that her mother had asked her to pick up. Every Sunday night since Michelle could remember her family and the Flacks would get together for dinner, alternating between houses each weekend. But since her siblings and the Flack children had all moved out of the house for school and work they hadn't all gotten together for dinner in a while. However, now that everyone was around her parents had decided to start up the tradition again.

Michelle had just reached the front of her apartment building, struggling with the many bags and Rascal's leash attempting to look for her keys, when her phone rang.

"Spencer"

"Hello dear!"

"Hiya mom. I just got back from the store." Michelle said still trying to find her keys, while balancing her cell between her ear and her shoulder.

"Great! That's all I called to see, we'll see you around 4 then hun?"

"Yeah, alright ma I gotta go Rascal is acting up and im gonna drop something."

"Ok, bye dear!"

As soon as Michelle hung up the phone and found her keys Rascal gave one hard tug at his leash, ripping it right out of her hand and bolted down the street.

"Shit!" she dropped all of her groceries and ran after him screaming.

"RASCAL! Stop! Uh….sit!...play dead?!" then Rascal turned the corner and was out of her sight. "Damnit! Stupid dog." Michelle muttered as she sped up and turned the corner. Not watching where she was going just nearly missing crushing a small dog which caused her to swerve and fall directly on top of who she presumed to be the dog's owner. "Oh my god! Im so sorry! I was chasing after my dog and then I almost crushed your dog and in turn knocked you clear over!" Michelle rambled as she stood turning to help the guy up, completely embarrassed, wondering how she get herself into such ridiculous situations.

"Whoa, whoa there newbie. Take some time to breathe there."

"Danny?!" oh great…Michelle thought as she helped him up.

"That's my name, don't wear it out" he replied "So, do you always go running around the city knocking over your coworkers on your days off, or am I just special?" If possible she turned an even darker shade of red.

"No, I um, well, see my dog, Rascal, ran out of my grasp, cause I had uhm all the groceries and my mom was on the phone…..yeah and uh-" Michelle relayed lamely



He just laughed. "You know, you're kinda cute when you get all flustered and embarrassed newbie." He said pinching her cheek lightly, when Rascal walked in between the two of them wagging his tall happily. "Hey there trouble maker" Danny said kneeling down to pet him. Meanwhile something nudged her leg and Michelle picked up a cute mixed dog.

"Is he yours?" she asked

"Yup" the dog barked and licked her face, while Rascal barked and jumped at Danny.

"He likes you." Michelle smiled trying to get Danny's dog to stop licking her.

"I could say the same for you" he said standing up to take his dog back and handing her Rascal's leash.

"You know," Michelle said tilting her head to the side "Your dog looks a lot like you."

"You think so?" he said raising his eyebrow and turning his dog to face him "Anyway, what are you doing in this neighborhood?"

"I live up the street." She said pointing behind them around the corner she had just come from "217. What about you?"

"oh, you know, just wandering around the city waiting for women to knock me off my feet". He responded with a wink.

"Now, _that_ was bad." Michelle said shoving his shoulder lightly. This movement caused her to notice what he was wearing: a slightly snug white wife beater, black, red and white basketball shorts and sneakers. He looked just as good if not better than he usually did in his work clothes, the outfit definitely highlighted his incredibly toned arms.

"So that's how you get all your dates, huh Messer?"

"You caught me." He laughed giving her a guilty look. "Nah, I live around the corner as well, 235."

"Small world" Michelle smiled.

"Come on, I'll walk you home." He said placing his hand on the small of her back and leading her around the corner.

"That's halfway down the block past your apartment though, just stand on your stoop and I'll wave when I get there." Michelle laughed, but not really minding at all.

"I need the exercise, plus I don't want you knocking over anymore innocent pedestrians." He smirked looking down at her.

She rolled her eyes and patted his stomach (aka hard abs) "yeah ok, tubby" Michelle said mockingly. "You could stand to gain a few".

He mimicked her eye roll "Looks like we're here. I'll help you bring these up." He said, handing Michelle his dog and collecting her groceries before she could protest.

"Such a gentleman" she mused unlocking the front door and leading him into the elevator, then to the 4th floor where her apartment was. Michelle unlocked her door and let him in. "You can just leave them on the floor near the door." She said as she walked into the kitchen with both dogs. He dropped 

the bags and followed Michelle, sitting down on one of the stools next to her kitchen counter. "Want something to drink? Water, iced tea, lemonade, beer?" she asked not looking at him while trying to reach for a bag on one of her upper cabinet shelves. Danny smiled at her futile attempts and walked up behind Michelle easily grabbing the bag.

"I'll have lemonade if you have it made already." He said still smiling and handing Michelle the desired item.

"Thanks" she said quietly Michelle noticed he smelled like sweet spices and cigarettes, it was pretty enticing. She dared to look up, her brown eyes meeting his sparkling blue ones. After another minute of silence Michelle realized what she were doing and quickly changed the subject "I don't know why they make cabinets so high anyway." She walked around him opening the bag of dog food and pouring some into Rascal's bowl, and then looked at Danny. He nodded, approving that his dog could have some as well. Instead of taking his previous position on the stool, Danny leaned with his back facing the counter elbows resting against it.

"You shouldn't blame the cabinet. It's not its fault you're short." He said smirking at Michelle as her poured 2 glasses of lemonade. Handing him his lemonade, she just glared in response, making him smirk more. "You know" he said taking a sip "when you ran into me, I didn't even realize it was you at first." Michelle looked down at her outfit, low rise gray sweat pants and a kind of short black v-neck t-shirt and she raised her eyebrows at him so he would continue "I've just never seen you in non-work clothes before. It took me until you started rambling for me to figure it out." Michelle blushed still slightly embarrassed about knocking him clear over.

"Yeah well, what can I say; it must be your natural animal magnetism that made me crash into you." Danny snorted into his glass and they both began to laugh.

Danny stayed for another hour before he said he had to go and meet someone for coffee. They had just hung out and got to know each other better, she also gave him a quick tour of her place. It turns out that they both had a lot in common with each other and Michelle could see them becoming good friends in the future, now she could see how he and Don, who look like opposites, are so close. After he left Michelle showered and got dressed so she could head over to her parents house and help with dinner.


	3. Chapter 3

It has been a month since Michelle started working in the city, and what a long one it had been. From drunks to rapists to just flat out weird people she were clearly being given the worst case load in the precinct, Michelle knew it was all account of the fact that she was new, but really it was getting slightly ridiculous. However, the people she got to work with made it all better. Michelle had met the rest of the CSI's and got along with them really well. Stella, being one of the few females around, was always there for those moments when she just wanted to be a girl, because of her hectic schedule she hadn't seen much of her friends and she was a great person to just talk to or hang around with. Mac was definitely the father of the group and Michelle could definitely tell he was a marine, but he was caring and on occasion would surprise her with his sense of humor. Sheldon was also being given the "new guy" treatment, and ended up working a lot of cases with Michelle. He was incredibly smart and really interesting to talk to, even though the cases they worked were grueling he made them fun and interesting, plus he made just as many bad jokes as she did. Michelle and Danny, as she had predicted, became good friends. They both took their jobs seriously and were passionate about cases, but also, they both had a mischievous side, ragging on each other and pulling science pranks on Don constantly. And since Michelle knew CJ and Don, the rest of the homicide guys and detectives had all taken a liking to her, dubbing her an unofficial part of their "guy crew".

It was a Friday night, around 9:30, and Michelle were at home watching TV. She of course, was on call for the 5th weekend in a row; sometimes it really sucks to be the new girl. Michelle sighed as her cell rang.

"Spencer….ok….got it….yeah I'll be there in 15". Sighing again, she turned off the TV, grabbing her badge and gun, heading off for the crime scene.

After a half an hour of questioning people, witnesses, etc. only to result in slammed doors or getting hit on Michelle returned back to the primary crime scene waiting for the on call CSI to show up, which was most likely to be Hawkes.

"So whatta we got here newbie?" Danny's voice brought her out of her trance.

"Hey, hotshot, what are you doing here? I was expecting Sheldon."

"Eh, we felt bad for giving him every weekend in a row for the past month. I see the boys aren't being as nice to you though, what is this 5 in a row?" he asked putting on some rubber gloves and walking towards the body.

"Yup its my last weekend for a long time. So, our DB, mid-twenties, female, no id, and barely any signs of struggle. She was found in the back of the alley, looks like cause of death was strangulation, possibility that she was unconscious when it happened though. She is still fully dressed, so I don't think it was sexual assault or rape. I've interviewed all possible witnesses, but most people saw nothing, the homeless women across the street says she saw a guy walk out of the alley around the time of estimated death though. She couldn't see his face too clearly, just that he was a little tall and wearing a black coat". Michelle said as Danny examined the body and the crime scene

"What about the neighbors?"

"Well apart from some angry people who are pissed that I woke them up, or a group of plumbers playing poker, who did invite me to join, but only if we played strip, everyone else said they heard nothing."

Danny laughed "someone's had a rough night".

"You have no idea" she smiled "Alrighty, im gonna go do some background on our vic, see if we can find any info from her prints, I'll call ya if anything comes up."



Two hours later Michelle walked into the crime lab with all the new info she had found out, Michelle had even gotten lucky and managed to interview some of her family and friends, despite the late hour. She found Danny bent over a microscope, glasses on his forehead concentrating on whatever it was he was staring at. His facial expression was adorable.

"Cyanuric Acid? What is that doing at our crime scene?" Danny jumped clearly not expecting her or anyone else to be there and accidentally hit his head against the microscope. Michelle giggled a bit but kept a pretty good fake guilty expression on her face. "Sorry" Michelle blushed, "you just looked so cute I couldn't help it." He just glared at her while rubbing his head. "But really what is Cyanuric Acid doing at our crime scene? And I have news, both good and bad."

"well I found it on some of the fabric that I found on the victims lips and in her hair, its defiantly transfer so now we just have to figure out why that chemical was on the clothes the guy was wearing. So what's the news? Bad first please."

"Ok well jealous boyfriend is in Vegas on business since Tuesday and is on his way home now for the funeral, he even faxed me his airline tickets from Vegas, and all of his alibis check out."

"So he's out."

"Yup, but when I was talking to the family they said they had another child, an older son, kind of the black sheep of the family, ran away ten years ago when he was 18, and hadn't been heard from until he showed up at his sister's door 3 years ago, a "changed man", she had always had faith in him, even tried looking for him during his 7 year absence family says. They warned her about him but she trusted him. I pulled up this guy's rap sheet, and let me just say, it's longer than I had pages to print it out on."

"No kidding…he sounds terrific." Danny replied.

"Yup, and it gets better his latest documented criminal activity, bar fight, was yesterday evening, and guess who came to bail him out of jail this morning?"

"His sister. What was he brought in with, a black coat perhaps?"

"Of course."

"Great, but we have a problem then."

"What?" Michelle asked

"If he did do it then why didn't he come up in the CODIS search?"

"hmm, maybe because all of his crimes except for last night's are outside of the city, lets try widening the search."

It was now around 2:30 in the morning and after finally finding the brother's address and arriving at his apartment. He decided to make this even more fun and tried to run. Michelle and Danny chased him for 2 blocks before they split up, Michelle veered onto a side street around hoping to cut him off and Danny remained behind him. She jumped out from a building tripping him, while Danny tackled him from behind, sending him crashing to the ground with such force he broke his nose. Of course they weren't letting him go anywhere until the interrogation was done, aka he confessed. As Danny was testing his clothes and running his DNA and prints against what they found in the alley, Michelle tried to get the guy to talk but he wouldn't budge. So now after all the evidence came back positive she and Danny sat across from the guy waiting for him to fess up.



"Anything you want to say yet?" Danny started, and after he got no response he continued "No? hmmm, well maybe this will change your mind. Not only did we find your prints and DNA all over the crime scene and your sister, but her clothes were full of the same chemicals you us at your pool installation job. And we know she bailed you out of jail this morning, apparently the 2 of you got into it outside the precinct huh? I call that motive, and all the evidence points to you, so you know what I think, I think you did it." The suspect said nothing and just continued to sit in silence, smirk planted firmly on his face. Danny's temper was definitely starting to flare, they were both getting sick of this guy, and Michelle knew that if they didn't get him on this soon she'd have to arrest Danny next for possibly hurting the guy. Michelle pulled out the post-mortem picture of his sister and placed it directly in front of him.

"This is your sister, look at her. You did this to her." She said pushing the picture closer as the suspect turned his head away from her. The smirk that hadn't left his face since he had been arrested was replaced with anger. "She always helped you out, but this time, she got wise to you. She finally stopped believing that you were going to change. So after she bailed you out, she told you this was the last time she was going to help you. You thought she wasn't serious, so after getting fired from work, yeah we know that too, you went to ask her for money, but she turned you down. Now that, you weren't expecting".

Danny continued "So you cornered her, thinking you could get her to change her mind. But she didn't budge, so you—"

"Made her remember why I always get my way. That's right, she was such a dumb naive bitch, little miss perfect, she could never think for herself and when she did it only lead her to trust people she shouldn't."

"like you?" Michelle quipped. He just glared at her in return and it was Danny's turn to smirk.

"She told me I was never going to get my life together and that mom and dad were right, I was worthless. So I sent them a message once and for all. And you know what, I'm not sorry, I'd do it again."

"You know what, she and your parents were right." Danny fumed

"Get him out of here" Michelle told the uniform.

Danny sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbed his face in his hands. Almost instinctively she put her hand on his shoulder, and rubbed his back lightly.

"Hey" Michelle said softly when he finally looked up at her. "I know this great place that's always open. Best pancakes in all of the city. So what'dya say, breakfast on me?"

He put his glasses back on and nodded "That'd be nice actually, but what about this paperwork?"

"Paperwork sh-maperwork, we'll do it on Monday." She said pushing him away from the direction of his office and towards the elevators.

He smiled a bit. "You've been hanging around Flack too long".

"You're right, these were probably the best pancakes I've had around here."

Michelle smiled, glad to see that Danny was in a better mood. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke.

"Thanks."



Looking up at him from her half eaten stack of chocolate-chip pancakes Michelle smiled slightly "No big, its just breakfast."

"No, I mean it. Really, I needed this, just a break, ya know? No talk of work or cases or whatnot. That last one kinda got to me, and well yeah, thanks, seriously."

Michelle put her hand over the one of his that was resting on the table "Hey, well all have our cases." Danny just nodded. "Last week Stella and Hawke's case had me so frustrated and well god only knows, Don practically kidnapped me and brought me to the batting cages. I was so pissed I nearly broke the machine because I hit the ball so hard, it just barely missed hitting one of the glass covers."

Danny smiled, "ok slugger, and where did you lean to hit like that? You don't exactly strike me as the softball type."

"Please, I grew up with 2 older brothers and Don and his family, I'm more into sports than you think Messer"

"Ok, favorite team then?"

"For which sport?"

"You know of more than one?" he said jokingly, acting surprised.

"Mets, Giants and Rangers, smartass"

"hmm….I approve."  
Michelle resisted the urge to respond with an equally smart-alacky remark and just asked "So what about you?"

"Same actually, except I'm a Knicks fan. So are you—" he was cut off by the ringing of his phone "sorry. Messer…..huh? wait who is this?...oh uh, hey….no I can't I'm kinda busy right now plus it's like 6 in the morning….what does it matter? Look Jeanette, I just got off a bad day at work, and I'm more than exhausted. You're really nice but I have to be honest with you, I'm just not interested. I'm sorry." Michelle could hear the woman string off a list of expletives and then hang up.

"Ooooh, somone's got women troubles."

Danny rolled his eyes at her. "She just got the wrong impression of my friendliness that's all…Friend of a friend, she was really wasted one night a while back, and I took her home. She took me out for coffee like 2 days later as a thank you, and since then she's been calling wanting to get together and stuff but she started talking like we were dating, leaving messages wanting to have the 'us' convos and stuff. Even though I've only seen her the 2 times."

"Messer, you took advantage of the coffee date and now you won't see the poor woman? Shame." Michelle tsked mockingly.

"I didn't take advantage of nobody. We literally had coffee, she's kinda crazy, and waaaay to forward for me, actually" he said matter-of-factly.

"Boy, oh boy, Messer the infamous CSI playboy is losing his touch. Don't spread the word that you're looking for something meaningful or else you'll be fending them off left and right and not just on a weekly basis." Michelle could see the color creep into his cheeks.



"Oh, hush. I'm no playboy; I at least _try_ to date women with substance." He said throwing a packet of sugar at her. Michelle picked it up and threw it back, but he moved out of the way and the packet went three tables down, colliding with the back of a pretty large trucker's head.

"Shit." She mumbled and dug through her purse. Finding a 20, she slapped in on the table. "Time to go Danny boy" Michelle said, grabbing his arm and rushing him out of the diner. As soon as they were a decent distance she let go of Danny's arm and began to walk normally.

"Nice shot back there Shaq" he teased, nudging her with his elbow.

"Pshh. It's all your fault. You started it, then ducked!" Michelle responded, pushing him lightly in the shoulder.

"I'm glad I ducked. If the damn thing went that far, it would have hurt when it nailed me in the face." He retorted while giving her a pretty decent hip check.

She laughed. "Can't having you hurt that pretty face of yours, eh Messer?" checking him back. This bantering continued the blocks back to the front of the lab when Danny bumped Michelle into a little too hard and off guard sending her right into someone.

"kids." A deep voice grumbled. Michelle looked up and saw that she had indeed bumped right into Flack, who hadn't bother to look down.

"Flack, you're such a geezer sometimes" Danny joked.

"Hey! And just cause I'm short doesn't mean I'm a child, Donald." Michelle said pretending to be insulted "Not everyone can be a giant like you."

"Ohh, great. You two are just the people I want to see at 7 in the morning when I'm on my way to work on a Saturday." He responded sarcastically.

"Pshh, you know you love me Donny, I brighten your day, admit it." She said pinching his cheek.

"Alright, alright" he said pulling her hand off his face "I swear the two of you regress every time you're together and off a case."

"I'd like to see how you'd be act after not sleeping and working on a case since last night. I'm just overtired now."

"Well you'd better get home and get some rest Miche. Me and the boys are taking you out tonight to celebrate surviving your first month here." Don said with a wink.

"Great, you're gonna get me wrecked. I better get to sleep then. Hey Messer want a ride?"

"Nah, I'm gonna go do that paper work, I just want it done with ya know?"

Michelle smiled and nodded, understanding. "Alrighty, I'm off, behave yourselves boys."

"Charlie's at 9 Spencer!" Don shouted after Michelle as she walked towards her car. She gave a wave over her shoulder to acknowledge that she had heard him.

"You gonna get her real drunk tonight aren't cha?"



"Ohh, yeah. I owe her one from a while back, that she won't let me live down, so I figure this is a good time to get her back." Flack responded as he walked across the street into the precinct.

"Be nice!" Danny shouted as he walked towards the lab laughing.


	4. Chapter 4

_So there's going to be a pronoun change…from you to she in the text from now on (Thank you x2 MySweetTimeJommie) Also the cases I use might go out of order everyone once and a while, especially since I'm pretending Lindsay left already._

And I don't own any part of CSI NY….so don't sue me, yeah?

* * *

Case: _Summer in the City_

It was 6:30 am the following Monday even though it was June, mornings in the city were kind of chilly. Still kind of hung over and exhausted from Saturday night with the boys, despite sleeping all Sunday, Michelle stood on the corner huddled in a black suit jacket she luckily grabbed on her way out this morning. She knew they sent her on this case as the last part of the "initiation" from hell. But inside Michelle understood, despite her high rank and experience the only thing that mattered to her fellow detectives was that they could trust her with their lives if need be, so they put the new guys through hell to see how much they could really handle. She was just glad that after today it was over. Frankly if she hadn't been so tired and hung over she might have found this case a lot more entertaining, I mean how often do you find a guy wearing a diamond bra, even in nyc?

"Asleep on the job newbie?"

"Ha, ha Messer. Are you ever going to stop calling me that? I mean I wont be new forever, one day I'll just be an oldie like you." She returned, stifling yet another yawn.

"An oldie, huh? What are you trying to say here Spencer, that I'm _old_?" Michelle just shrugged, giving him a sheepish grin. "That's not very nice. And to think, I even picked you up a coffee, your fav, cause I knew you'd still be hung over. Guess you don't need it though, being so young and all."

"Ok, ok. I'm sorry….Can I have my coffee please?"

"Uh, uh uh….with some sincerity here newbie." He said wiggling one of the two cups in his hand just out of her reach.

"Fine." She let out a sigh and continued "You're not old. You're the youngest, most buff and hottest CSI in all of the N-Y-C."

"Hmmm…..well that wasn't really what I was expecting." Michelle shot him a warning glance, and Danny learned from dealing with Stella that it was not wise to mess with a grumpy, hung over, Greek woman who hasn't had her caffeine. "But, I'll accept it." He finished with a smirk and handed her the coffee.

Rolling her eyes, Michelle accepted the cup, practically downing half of it in her first sip. "Thanks Messer, you know I'm always glad to boost your ego."

"You know you love me Spencer." He said giving her cheek a quick pinch and walking towards the entry of the building.

"So whatta we got here?" Danny asked as he ducked under the crime scene tape blocking the apartment door.

"Male, found dead wearing—"

"Diamond panties?!" Danny interrupted "It is way to early for this."

"Trust me, I know." Michelle responded as she and Danny got to work.

"What's the news here guys?" Stella said about forty-five minutes later, walking in from behind them.

"Male found dead in diamond, probably rhinestone, covered lingerie, name on the mailbox downstairs is Price" Michelle answered.

"Price? As in Whitman Price?" Stella questions, Michelle looks through her notes and nods.

"Yeah, why you know him Stel?" Danny asks her, pausing from his photographing for a minute.

"Sure, he's a famous designer and those aren't rhinestones, they're probably real. Anyway I'll take over here; you and Danny should start interviewing his models and photographers. Lets get to everyone he's seen in the last 24-32 hours." Stella said.

"Fine by me" Danny said as he put his arm around you leading you out of the apartment and back towards the elevator. "So who are we starting with newbie?"

"Nicole Jordan, last known person to wear the bra before Mr. Price, she modeled it at a photo shoot."

"Jackpot, Flack's gonna be so pissed when he hears this" Danny joked getting into the drivers side of the car.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yes, she was absolutely checking me out, Spencer! You're just jealous. Understandable though, I'm a hot commodity."

"Oh puh-lease Messer, you're like half her height, if you hadn't said anything she probably wouldn't have even seen you standing there…hot commodity my ass" Michelle mumbled as an after thought.

Danny was about to respond when her phone rang. Michelle smirked at him and got back in the passenger's seat of the car.

"Spencer"

"You sound way to cheery Miche, I don't think we got you drunk enough."

She laughed "Oh, no, believe me Flack, I was and still am plenty hung over, thank you. I'm just happy because for once, I got the last word with Messer." Slightly audible mumbles and mimicking came from the detective sitting beside her; she ignored him and continued her conversation "So what's up?"

"Are you and Messer really working a case with diamond lingerie?"

"Yeah, why? You jealous that me and Danny get to stare at a hot, sexy, half naked…dead older guy in a diamond bra?"

"An old guy?! Never mind then…I was gonna see if you wanted to trade cases, you being a closet science nerd and all."

"Ha ha, _Donald_, you and Messer must be hanging out a lot these days; you both seem to have this crazy idea that you're funny."

"Cute Miche, real cute. Anyway I gotta go, but some hot chick came in earlier, looking for you."

"Hot chick and she was looking for me…not you?" Danny raised an eyebrow and looked over at Michele curiously "That's specific...do I even get a name here Donny?"

"I dunno, Metcalfe spoke to her, not me. And from what he told me, she's got a temper, she gave him quite the telling off when he tried to hit on her."

Michelle laughed a bit "That's definitely one of my friends, probably Kara?"

"Kara, the crazy one?"

"That's her, well I'll let you get back to your case, don't want you slacking off while Danny and I have to do all the work."

"Now who's trying to be the comedian?"

"Bye Flack." Michelle laughed as he hung up. "Don't even" she said not even looking at Danny.

"Don't what? I didn't even say anything." He questioned, even though he knew exactly what she meant, he was more surprised that she already knew him well enough to know what he would say.

"But you were about to; and I don't even wanna know, Messer."

"I'm insulted, me, make a comment about you and having an apparently hot friend, who's, shockingly female nonetheless? Now Spencer, how could you, I would never." He responded putting a hand to his chest and acting appalled.

"One of these days _Daniel_, one of these days." Michelle said rolling her eyes.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michelle had been researching Whitman Price while Danny and the new lab tech Zack processed evidence and Stella was with the ME. Overall this guy had a ton of money, lots of investors, and worked with tons of models throughout the years, finding possible suspects wasn't going to be a problem, but narrowing it down was.

"I think we got some finger prints here Detective Messer" Zack said while dusting part of the bra.

"Yeah? I think I got a partial palm on the underwear here as well, tape it and run it in CODIS."

"Ok"

"And Zack?"

"Yes, Detective?"

"Just call me Danny" he said with a smile and returning to examine the diamonds.

"Danny, tell me you got something off the underwear?" Stella came in asking.

"Yeah, Zack found a print and he's running it now, hopefully it's not the vic's. What'd doc say?"

"Price died from a blow to the chest. He swallowed this" she said handing him a bag containing a larger diamond. "And when the suspect hit him it punctured his heart, he was dead within minutes."

"Hmm…this diamond isn't marked like the ones on the bra. We should test it."

"Prints are back." Zack announced "They belong to a Fred Becker, former jewel thief."

"Great work Zack, I had a sub-dermal done, to see if we could get an imprint of the hand that struck Mr. Price. Let's see if it matches him."

"Hey, Stella, look at this." Danny said, calling her over. "The diamond's a fake. You think Becker attempted to pull another heist, pass off this fake. But Price knew more about diamonds than he thought and called him on it?"

"Sounds like you guys already found out about Becker, sometimes I wonder why me and Don even bother looking stuff up if you guys figure it out by the time we get here." Michelle laughed as she entered the lab. "Becker was Price's personal securities expert. He was damn good at it too, having the first hand experience and all."

"Ok, Danny why don't you and Michelle go talk to Becker, take his imprints and we'll see if they match. I'm going to stay here with Zack, and run that dirt we found."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I know he seems sketchy, but I don't think he did it." Michelle sighed as she walked back to the car with Danny after interviewing Becker.

"I know what you mean, Price was his money maker, he needed him to land more accounts, but I think we should keep tabs on him anyway, just in case." Michelle nodded in agreement. Just then Danny's phone rang. "Messer…central park, really? …the photo shoot was there. Alright thanks Zack, let Stella know we're off to see the bodyguard then."

"The bodyguard, well he's certainly strong enough to pull this off" Michelle remarked as Danny drove away.

"Yeah, Zack found that the dirt we found matches the dirt from the same area the photo shoot was done in."

Michelle and Danny found the bodyguard who ran then at the sight of them.

"Why do they always run?" Michelle mumbled to herself as she caught up to Danny who had tackled the bodyguard about 2 blocks from where they started.

"Spencer, his fist matches." Danny called to you.

"So, where's the diamond?"

"I don't have it. Look he threatened Nicole and I reacted, that's my job. End of story."

"Then why'd you run?" Michelle asked.

"I'm on parole, alright, and I've skipped a few meetings with my officer. I thought you were coming to arrest me."

"Well you got the arresting part, alright. You're coming with us until we can find that diamond." Danny said as he walked him to the back of the car.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We're at a dead end." Stella sighed as she put down the case files. "Maybe we should go over the bodyguard's place one more time?"

"They did it 3 times already, I'm not sure they'll find anything different unless they actually rip up the walls." Danny said rubbing his hands through his hair "What could we possibly be missing? Maybe we should just start over, look at the whole picture again."

"That's it! Danny you're a genius!" Michelle suddenly exclaimed and kissed his cheek rushing out of the room.

"Whoa…I have no idea what I just did but I'm gonna do it more often." Danny said with a dazed but very happy expression. Stella was going to say something when Michelle came back into the room, with just as much zest as when she left. She handed each of them one of the pages she had in her hand.

"The last person who wore the outfit before Price was Nicole, right? So I figure why don't we take a look at her photo shoot stills."

"I wish we would all come to such productive conclusions every time Danny opened his mouth. We'd get so much more done." Stella joked.

"Is that what I think it is?" Danny asked, clearly ignoring Stella's comment and pointing at something in the background of the photo.

"It's the diamond, good work Danny, let's go pick up Nicole, it seems she has some explaining to do." Stella said walking out towards the elevators.

"I don't get a kiss for that one?" Danny smirked. Michelle sighed, then grabbed his face planting a kiss on his other cheek. Danny opened his mouth as if to say something but then just closed it.

She was slightly shocked at her own boldness but Michelle just smiled, raising her eyebrow and shrugging in response, "What? I'm feeling generous today."

"One more of those, and I'm gonna have to buy you lunch." Danny laughed wrapping his arm around Michelle's shoulder and leading her to the elevator.

"You trying to coax another one outta me, Messer?"

"Why, are you gonna keep doing it? Cause then we can move right on to dinner, maybe even skip that and head for dessert."

Michelle rolled her eyes "Let's stick just to lunch for now, plus it all depends on where you plan on taking me."

"I'll take you places you've never been before" Danny winked, intentionally being cheesy.

"Oh jeez, how did I get myself mixed up with you?" Michelle joked as the elevator door opened to the garage.

"It must be cause I'm so damn cute."

"Ah, that's it. I just can't resist your sexy Italian charm."

"_Una lingua bella è l'unico senso affascinare una donna speciale_"

"Alright Rico Suave, get in the car, we've got a suspect to arrest." Stella joked.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nicole had taken the real diamond and hid it amongst the ornaments in the plants behind her so she could get it later, case closed. An hour later, around 3, Michelle and Danny had just been given the rest of the day off and were walking out of the precinct together.

"So, how about that lunch you promised me Messer?" Michelle teased.

"I said I'd only buy you lunch if you kissed me again Spencer. And unless I blacked out, I don't remember that happening."

Michelle was about to respond when she was interrupted by someone shouting out her name, her full name at that.

"Michelle Elizabeth Spencer!"

"What the—" Michelle started to say before getting cut off by a large hug. "Kara?!"

"Duh, who else would it be?" the 6ft red head laughed at her friend. "Who's the hottie?" Kara said nodding her head in Danny's direction.

"Oh great job Kara, he's gonna be gloating about that one for weeks now." Don said walking up behind you.

"Aww Donno, I'd say you were jealous but we all know you like Kylie anyway." Kara joked.

"Detective Danny Messer." Danny said sticking out his hand.

"Kara Carlyle." She responded shaking his hand.

"So Kar, not that I'm not glad to see you but, what are you doing here?" Michelle asked

"Myself, Danielle, Rebecca and Kylie decided we were going to kidnap you and take you out to lunch. You boys can come too" she said winking at Danny and motioned for them to follow her.

"Stay away from this one Messer, trust me." Don quietly muttered to Danny. "She eats men whole."

"He's not kidding." Michelle added in response to Danny's questioning glance.

Danny shrugged "That's alright, she's not really my type anyway." He said winking at Michelle as they walked through the door of a pretty nice restaurant.

"Messer, you have a type? I thought it was just women in general." Don joked.

"We're sitting over to the left, I'm just gonna go grab the waiter and I'll be right there." Kara said pointing towards the back of the restaurant. Michelle spotted her friends immediately and rushed over to great them, leaving Danny and Don to follow the sound of uncharacteristically girly giggles and squeals of "Oh my god!" or "You look great!" Danny raised his eyebrow at Don as if to say "what did we get ourselves into", Don just shook his head and continued to walk towards the group of women. After the girls had settled down and Kara had returned, Michelle made the necessary introductions. Don had met her friends already but none of them knew Danny, well not personally at least. Danielle was Kara's twin and besides their faces and height, they were nothing alike, firstly Danielle was far more soft spoken and shy compared to Kara's more bold approach to life. She had also kept her natural blonde hair, whereas Kara chose to go red since her 16th birthday. Rebecca was Danielle's roommate in college and Kylie's cousin, which is how Michelle had met the twins. She had light brown hair, was about 5'6 and was somewhere in between Kara and Danielle personality wise, not too shy but not too outgoing either. Then there was Kylie, Michelle's best friend and her next door neighbor. They had known each other forever, but they didn't become close until high school, after that they were inseparable. Kylie had long dirty blonde hair, she was about 5'6-5'7, had light blue eyes and tan-ish skin. She was very pretty, all of her friends were, and had had a crush on Don since she met him way back in their childhood. Neither of them had done anything about it though.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lunch went pretty well, a lot better than Michelle had expected, considering she only had to sit through 3 mildly embarrassing stories from her teen/college years, the 3 bottles of wine they had helped a bit as well. She somehow even managed to get Don and Kylie to end up leaving together so that they might finally ask each other out.

"So, you like to do karaoke when you're drunk?" Danny smirked as he and Michelle walked to the train station.

"Uhhh….how about no more talk of me and the dumb things I do drunk. I do enough stupid things sober, no need to go into the ones I can't remember or control." Michelle laughed.

"Aww, I'm just teasing you Michelle." Danny said wrapping his arm around her shoulder and giving her a half hug.

"I know, I know….hey, I think that's the first time you've ever called me by my first name."

"Well I can't call you newbie forever now can I? Gotta think of a proper nickname, until then, I'll just stick to your given names."

"Oh goodness, I can only imagine the kinda nickname you're gonna give me." Michelle joked as they entered the train station. A few minutes later the train came, it was surprisingly empty, they must have just beaten rush hour. Michelle plopped down in a seat, Danny following in suit next to her. Yawning she laid her head on his shoulder.

"When did I get so sleepy?" she laughed in between her yawns.

"Must have been the wine, I'll wake you up when we get to our stop." He said putting his arm around her so she could lean her head more comfortably and so his arm wouldn't fall asleep. "Take a nap."

"Mmm, okay, thanks Danny." Danny absentmindedly ran his hand through Michelle's hair, closing his eyes as well. NYers were the only people he knew who could sleep on the train and wake up right before their stop.

A half an hour later Danny was shaking Michelle lightly but she wouldn't wake up, so he gave up and poked her right in the nose.

"Mhmm, hey!" She responded half awake, swatting at his hand.

Danny laughed "Next stop is us."

"Oh" she said removing herself from his arm, blushing slightly and wondering why she always manages to make a fool of herself in front of him. Not that it mattered though, it was just Danny right? They walked to their street a few blocks away in a comfortable silence, stopping when they reached Danny's building which came first.

"Walking me to my door? How romantic of you." Danny joked

"I learn from the best, Mr. Italian Stallion." Michelle teased back. Danny shook his head in response, biting at the smile threatening to form at his lips, when his eyes met hers however he grew quiet, his face becoming more serious.

"Michelle I…I had a fun time with your friends today." He sighed quietly his eyes moving away from hers.

"Well they're an interesting bunch." Silence again, until Michelle continued, no longer able to handle the awkwardness. "Uhm, well I should go, my parents are expecting me for dinner and stuff." Danny just nodded. "Thanks for letting me sleep and stuff. I'll see you tomorrow." And before she realized what she was doing she kissed his cheek for the 3rd time that day. She immediately pulled back, eyes widening she turned and quickly walked, practically ran down the block to her house, muttering to herself about being an idiot the whole way there.

Danny stood at the foot of his stairs hand on his cheek, staring at the woman briskly walking away from him, shocked for the 3rd time that day. The 1st time she had kissed him it was just out of nowhere, the 2nd time he was more surprised that she did it again, they joke flirted all the time, but he had never expected her to respond affirmatively. And this last time, well it was different, he couldn't explain exactly why, but he knew it. Could she? Could _he_—more importantly. An unconscious smile found a way onto his lips as he saw her storming up her stairs, still probably talking to herself, and enter her building. Danny sighed, shaking his head he walked up the stairs to his building. He was sure that he was never going to understand women, but some of them were making it worth the effort.

* * *

_This is a kind of long one, lots of everything in there, but I want to know what people think. What do you want, more crime scene/cases, more other characters with OFC interactions, less Danny/OFC interactions, etc. thanks!_


	5. Chapter 5

Cases from: _Jamalot_ and _Risk_

"So looks like you got the jackpot case this week, hot roller derby girls, huh." Danny said walking out of the lab and over to Don who had been waiting for him to go eat.

"Yeah well, can't let you have all the pretty girls now can we?" he responded "Now let's go eat I'm starved."

"So how's your black light mystery doing?" Don asked as they sat at their favorite diner.

"It's just strange you know. I think we need to find out why the ending of a book was written all over the vic and not in his writing; especially if he was the one writing the story. Who else would know how it ended?"

"Unless he didn't actually write the story."

"Exactly, I sent the photos of the writing from the body and the vic's samples over to an analyst; I got a meeting with him after this."

"That's good." Don said.

Danny couldn't help but notice that Flack had been in an exceptionally good mood all day. He could have been punched in the face and wouldn't have even blinked an eye about it.

"So, what's got you in such a good mood, Flack? Something go down last night after we left the restaurant?" Danny asked taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Uh yeah sorta, I think me and Kylie are going on a date on Thursday night."

"Wait whatta mean you think? I mean you're either going out …or you're not." Danny laughed.

"I dunno, I mean I asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner with me, and before she could answer I blurted out that it would be as friends so we could catch up since I haven't seen her in a while. So now I have no idea what she really thinks." Don spun out lamely.

"Well from what I could see yesterday, I think she likes you, Flack, so you've got nothing to worry about."

"I want to say that makes me feel better, but I think I'm just more nervous now." Don laughed and his phone started to ring. He sighed and answered "Yeah Montgomery?...what do you mean she's scaring you?...she's not gonna kill you, relax…her favorite pair? Oh..yeah that is bad. Look just stay out of her way for a while, I'll be back in 10."  
"What was that about?" Danny asked curiously.

"Apparently Michelle is having a very bad day at work. Some suspect is drunk, threw up on her twice, and ruined her favorite pair of heels."

"Jeez…Why doesn't she have him booked until he sobers?"

"They won't let her. Apparently LT claims that he might forget it when he sobers up, some big deal case or whatever, she's not really on it but he wanted her specifically to interrogate the guy. Montgomery is scared half to death though, he made some kind of stupid comment when she was going to change and she nearly took his head off. She screamed a bunch of stuff I can't repeat here and told him to stick his smartass remarks back up the end where they came out of. If you know what I mean."

Danny laughed and then paused "Hey, Don you know it's only like a 30 second walk back to the precinct right?"

"Why, you in a rush to get back to that? I wanna finish my sandwich in peace thank you very much." Don said taking a bite out of his lunch giving Danny a satisfied look.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile back at the precinct Michelle had just walked into the locker room. Her day could not get any worse. Her oh so fantastically drunk interviewee had thrown up on her not once, but twice. The second time he managed to permanently ruin her favorite pair of black suede pumps. It was taking everything in her to not swing at this guy, between the lewd comments and the vomiting she wasn't sure how much longer it would be before they arrested her on assault and battery charges. 15 minutes later after washing off her legs, and changing her outfit she walked out of the locker room and back towards the interrogation room. Danny and Don had walked out of the elevator in time to see an angry Michelle storm into one of the interrogation rooms. Danny raised his eyebrow and looked over at Don.

"Well I'm watching, she might need some witnesses to claim temporary insanity later on." Don responded walking towards the room, Danny followed.

"Ready to talk now?" Michelle asked.

"I see you freshened up for me, you looked sexier in the white top. Showed more of your—"

"I don't want to hear another word out of you unless it's something I can use about this case, you understand?"

"Sure thing sweetness…Now what I can't understand is why a hot little number like your self is working here. I can show you a good time" he slurred.

"What did I just say Mr. O'Malley? Shut it unless you want to start telling me about what happened last night." Michelle countered getting more frustrated by the minute. Outside the room Danny and Don could see why, this guy was a piece of work.

"What's going on here?" Mac asked walking up to the two Detectives.

"Drunkard won't cooperate. Apparently he puked on her twice" Don responded.

"He's a character. I'm surprised she hasn't decked him yet, god knows I would have by now and I've only been here for 5 minutes." Danny mused and the 3 men turned their attention back to the interrogation.

"If I can cop a feel I'll tell you what happened."

"You better keep your hands where they are or I swear I'll cuff you to the damn chair." Michelle growled.

"Like it kinky, huh? I bet you enjoyed me throwing up on you didn't you. You're one of those dirty naughty girls." O'Malley hiccupped, making some interesting hand gestures before falling out of his chair. Michelle's eyes narrowed and she got out of her chair and walked over to the guy, picking him up by the collar of his shirt she attempted to sit him down when he made a move to kiss her.

"Son of a—" Don said as both he and Danny went to storm into the room, only to be cut off by Mac.

"Mac, didn't you see that? She needs some help in there, the uniform is clearly asleep." Don said loudly.

"If you both go in there now he'll never talk. He'll get the upper hand knowing he got to her. She can handle it" seeing that they were not convinced he added" I promise if things go too far you can go in." Danny and Don nodded hesitantly, knowing Mac was right but still not liking the situation.

"THAT'S IT! I've had enough of you" Michelle screamed after throwing the suspect down into the chair. "You're getting cuffed." As she reached for her handcuffs and went to walk around behind him to do it he slapped her ass. She turned, putting her foot on the front of his chair and pushed it hard enough to slam into the wall behind them.

"Holly hell." Danny muttered as he, Don and Mac stared wide eyed into the room.

Michelle walked over to the very shaken up man bending down so she could get in his face. "Now listen up scum bag, I have had it with you. You're gonna talk and you're gonna do it now. I swear if you don't I will find a way to lock you up for the rest of your pathetic and wasted natural life! And if you so much as THINK about laying another hand on me, I will swing back in defense, hard, then have you arrested for sexual harassment and assaulting a police officer, got it?" the man stared at her defiantly for a moment before nodding a yes.

"I told you she could handle it." Mac said before walking back towards the lab.

"That's why I stay on her good side." Flack remarked.

"You're telling me. Remind me to never piss her off." Danny said shaking his head wondering how 5'4 woman could have so much anger. About 5 minutes later a slightly less angry Michelle walked out of the interrogation room.

"Bad day?" Don asked.

"You could say that." Michelle said letting out a sigh. "Did that even just really happen?" she laughed quietly in disbelief.

Danny smiled putting his hands on her shoulders and rubbing them a bit. "Someone needs a drink."

"How about the whole bar?" Michelle responded. Danny and Don laughed and Danny's pager went off.

"Well I'm off to see the psych, don't kill anyone else today, ok?" Danny said pushing Michelle's shoulder lightly and walking away.

"Yeah, yeah, watch yourself Messer or you'll be next." Michelle called after him and then turned to Don who had raised an eyebrow at their little interaction. "What?" she asked as they headed back to their desks.

"Nothing, just the two of you got pretty close…it's cute." She mad a curious face at her friend. "Plus I hear he smells good too." Don ribbed.

"So when the two of you go out to lunch, it's really to smell each other?"

Don stopped smiling. "No, smartass. You apparently told him so last night. On the train, you were like half awake."

"I did not…did I?" She questioned turning her head in his direction.

"According to Danny you did." Don smirked as Michelle blushed covering her face with her hands. "Aww don't get all embarrassed kiddo, I'm sure he'll forget about it eventually. Me, that's a different story."

"Of course, why would you forget?" Don's pager went off.

"Looks like I'm needed…smell ya later." He said walking away from her and dodging the pen she had thrown at him. Michelle shook her head and pulled out her cell.

"Kylie? Hey…yes…you read my mind, we really need a Girls night.…Friday's good, how about we all meet at my place at 8? And tell the rest of the girls. Alright, I'll talk to you later hun." She smiled putting down her phone and starting on her mound of paper work from last week.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Around 7:30 pm Michelle was just about done with all her paper work when Danny and Don walked into the precinct.

"Hey Danny looks like someone had a lot of paperwork to do. While I, on the other hand, have none." Don laughed.

"And thank god for that, or else you and Kylie would never get to go out to dinner Thursday." Michelle retorted. Don just made a face in response.

"You almost done there Bruce Lee?" Danny joked.

"Yeah, I'm printing this last one out…ok, done. I'm just gonna go grab my bag and stuff, and then we can leave." Michelle said walking off towards the lockers.

"So when you gonna ask her out on an official date?" Don asked smirking as Danny unintentionally stared at Michelle as she walked away from them.

"The same day you stop wearing those interesting shirt/tie combos you got going on. Come on Don, we're just friends, you know that." Danny joked.

"Clever Messer, but when you two decide that you want more than just smelling each other on the subway, just remember I will be there to say I told you so."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Ok, I'm ready to go. See you later Don…oh and fyi, Kylie prefers sunflowers to roses and loves spicy food." Michelle said taking Danny's arm.

"Later Flack." Danny said starting to walk away.

"Can't wait to say it Messer…Remember Friday, I'm taking you out with the boys."

"Yeah, keep wearing those ties buddy!" Danny called as he and Michelle entered the elevator. She just raised her eyebrows at their exchange.

"So you're going out with Don, CJ and my brothers on Friday?"

"Yup Hawkes might even come. Guys night, you know."

"Ah so beer and sports…maybe some strippers in there?" Michelle teased.

"Who told you about the strippers?"

"You guys are really going to a strip club?!" Michelle questioned wide-eyed.

Danny just laughed. "No. But it was worth saying to see your reaction."

Michelle hit his arm and walked out of the elevator. Danny just smiled and followed her towards the train station.

"So what are you doing after work tonight?" Danny asked catching up to her.

"Not sure, although that drink you mentioned earlier is sounding pretty good to me…Charlie's is just across the street, I'll buy you a beer if you'd like to join me."

"Only if I get to buy the first round."

"I think I can handle that." Michelle said as they crossed the street.

About two and a-half hours, 3 games of pool and 3 rounds of drinks later, two of which Danny insisted on paying for, the last one he finally relented and let Michelle buy, they were now both on their way to the train in considerably better moods.

"Now where did you learn how to play pool so well?" Michelle asked.

"I should be asking you that, you won the 2nd game and had it basically tied in the last one." Danny said.

"Yeah well, I can probably do a lot of things well that you'd be surprised about." Michelle said swiping her metro card and going through the turnstile.

Danny raised an eyebrow and smirked at her "Oh yeah, like what?" he said baiting her while joining her on the platform.

"Nope, that's for me to know and you to find out." She winked at him.

"Is that a challenge?" Danny asked as the train arrived.

"You can take that to mean whatever you like." Michelle smiled as they moved to the front of the somewhat crowded car.

Danny shook his head standing across from her and the door, he leaned in slightly "I like you after you've had a few in ya Spenser; you're a lot more—"

"Flirtatious? I know." Michelle laughed. She knew for a fact she wasn't drunk, but her boldness and flat out flirtations with Danny were stemming from something that she wasn't sure if she was quite ready to admit yet. "To tell you the truth, I don't think this is the alcohol talking." Immediately after saying that she looked down blushing a bit, realizing exactly how forward she must sound.

"I was hoping it wasn't." Danny said smiling when she looked up at him. Suddenly Danny's face turned serious and he pressed his face over her shoulder nearer to the glass.

"What's—Oh my god." Michelle said as Danny ran to the conductor's booth.

"Stop the train! NYPD! Stop the train!" he shouted and the conductor stopped just in time. Danny and Michelle looked at each other, each thinking the same thing; this was going to be the start of a long night.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About 20 minutes later Mac walked down the subway tunnel and over to Danny who was kneeling by the body

"Danny didn't you just get off your shift?" Mac asked.

He smiled shrugging his shoulders "Yeah."

"Hey Mac, I didn't know you were on call. Love the suit though." Michelle said coming up behind them.

"Thank you. Don't tell me you were on the train home as well?"

"Yup, what can I say, this job never stops." She said.

"I know what you mean." Mac responded putting on some gloves and crouching towards the body.

"Randy Williams, college kid. He was going to Chelsea University. Looks like he's been subway surfing recently." Danny said examining the body.

"What's that in his left hand?" Mac asked. Danny raised the vic's hand so he could get better look. "It's a shark tooth." Mac stated extracting the item from the boy's hand.

"Maybe he wanted to make the surfing more realistic?" Michelle said. Both men looked at her, Danny having a smile starting to form at the corner of his mouth and Mac raised eyebrow but still amused by her comment. "Ok, ok, not funny" she said raising her hands in defense. "Well I'm going to go see if I can find out where the previous train is and who the conductor is. I'll meet you guys back at the morgue." She said walking in the direction Mac had just come from.

"So, you and Michelle punched out a few hours ago, but were on the train home now?" Mac asked Danny.

"Yeah, we decided to go to Charlie's for a bit, play some pool. To cool down before we headed home"

"I see." Mac said looking at him curiously. "You know, the two of you together—"

"Oh no, Mac, not you too?" Danny laughed "I got a lecture from Flack this afternoon."

"Well, it's true. I mean it's not so terrible you know."

"What isn't?"

"Getting serious with one woman, settling down." Mac said once again amused.

"Do you guys have a bet going or something, and you both picked sometime this week?" Danny asked jokingly.

"It could happen to you, you know."

"What marriage?"

"Love." Mac corrected.

"Don't even say stuff like that Mac, it's not funny."

Smiling, Mac removed one of his gloves and stood, placing his hand on the younger detective's shoulder. "Let's get the body to Sid so he can start the autopsy."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Danny and Michelle interviewed the conductor, Chuck White, from the train ahead of their's and blood found in the car and footprints found on top of the car confirmed that Randy Williams was there. His roommate Perry Lohmann and the bouncer from the bar the two guys were at were also in the car. They found the roommate in bed with the victim's girlfriend but he said that he and Randy followed the bouncer, who they got into a fight with onto the train. They may have subway surfed but he doesn't really remember, the only thing he clearly remembers is that he left Randy on the train, they were both pretty wasted but he was alive.

"I've hit a dead end." Danny said rubbing his eyes and looking over at Adam, the lab tech. "The blood on the roommates paddle isn't Randy's and the wood from both the bouncer's club and the roommate's paddle don't match the splinters we found in our vic. I'm running outta suspects here."

"What if we look at the shark tooth again? I mean it was a pretty big shark, and the algae said it was from the North Atlantic, there's only been quite a few of those caught in the past decade. Maybe we can find someone in common on the list." Adam suggests.

"It's worth a shot."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You paged me?" Michelle asked stifling a yawn as she walked into the lab.

"Yup, I bring good news." Adam said handing her a photo.

"Adam, this is a guy with a huge fish, what do you want me to do with this?" Michelle asked staring at the photo.

"That, is not just any fish, it's a North Atlantic Shark. Matching species to the tooth Mac found in your victim. Do you recognize the fisherman?"

Michelle looked closely, "It's the conductor, Chuck White; so much for his story. This is great Adam, thanks. I think we need to go pay him a visit…where is Danny by the way?"

"I'm here" He said walking into the room "I was just talking to Mac. He found some anti-freeze on the splinters; he's going to pickup the conductor now."

"Oh…good. So we're pretty much done."

"Yup, and I'm definitely ready to hit the sheets." Danny said sitting down and putting his head on his folded arms.

"I hear that." Michelle said standing behind him and massaging his shoulders lightly, Danny had been working a longer shift than she had earlier today, he must have been exhausted. The three of them sat there quietly, enjoying the silence until a couple of minutes later Adam was paged down to A&V and he left leaving them alone in the room. Michelle stopped massaging Danny's shoulders and plopped down in the swivel chair Adam had just left.

Danny grunted and turned his head so it was lying sideways on his arms, facing her. "Mhm…I almost fell asleep there." Michelle laughed softly and slowly swiveled side to side in the chair. "Next time that I come home from the gym I'm calling you, my shoulders feel great." he laughed sitting up and rotating his shoulders a few times.

"Rebecca, the one from dinner the other night, is a chiropractor. She used to practice on me and Danielle. Sometimes, she'd show us how to massage muscles properly or crack necks and stuff."

"Oh yeah, well maybe I should call her then." Danny said.

"I can get you her number, although I don't think she makes house calls."

"Well maybe she will for me." He said elbowing her lightly.

"Not a chance there buddy, you may be cute but you're not quite cute enough." Michelle responded.

"So says you." Danny smirked as his cell rang. "Messer…ok, yeah….no she's right here, I'll tell her. Alright, have a good one Mac."

"So, off to interrogation then?"

"Nope, the guy confessed, so we're outta here." Danny said standing and holding the door open for her. "Ladies first."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back on the train Danny and Michelle ended up on the same car that they had before, sans the dead body of course.

"I think that girl over there is checking you out." Michelle said subtly nodding to her right. Danny peered in the direction Michelle had nodded to see a pretty brunette who immediately reverted back to her text book when she noticed him looking. "She's been throwing glares my way the whole ride." Michelle said as Danny returned his gaze back to her.

"I think I've seen her on the train a few times."

"Well, don't let me stand in your way."

"Nah, I kinda like when you're in my way…cause at least then you're not knocking me over." Danny winked at Michelle as she blushed slightly and pushed his shoulder. "Looks like our stop." He continued, she nodded and they both walked towards their street in a comfortable silence.

As they approached Danny's building Michelle stopped but Danny kept walking.

"It's late, so I'll just walk you home." He said.

"And you know I'm just gonna stand at the top of the stairs until you get back to your building, right?" she asked him.

"You always do." He smiled.

"Well you always insist on walking me home late at night, it's only fair I make sure you get in alright." She said wrapping her arm around his shoulders, giving him a quick side hug.

He laughed and stopped at her stairs. "Night Michelle." He had been using her first name more and more recently, but usually only when it was just the two of them. She liked the way he said her name, the way his accent made it sound. She smiled.

"Night Danny, and thanks for walking me home" He just waved her off, indicating it was nothing and turned to walk back to his building. Michelle walked halfway up the stairs so she could see him better, when he stopped and quickly walked back. "Forget something?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah, what are you doing Saturday? Cause I was going to head to the batting cages, and I know you keep bragging about your skills and all. So I kinda want to see them in action."

"I see…Well, it sounds like fun and I'm free."

Danny smiled "Alright, I'm ringing your bell at 2pm."

"Sounds good." She smiled at him as he nodded and turned back in the direction of his apartment. When he got to his building, he looked down the street at Michelle's building, as he reached the top of his stairs and waved at her, she waved back and walked inside. Ok so maybe Don was right, he thought. Danny sighed, knowing full well that he was definitely not going to hear the end of it for a very long time.


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of Wednesday and Thursday had gone by rather quickly for the Detectives, and it was now Friday early afternoon. Don had been out on a call all morning, while Michelle had been given an easy day since she ended up working an almost 20 hour shift between Tuesday and Wednesday, plus her regular shifts on Thursday. She had demanded that Don go to lunch with her to discuss how his date went last night. She had run out of paper work and things to do about 10 minutes ago so she decided to call Kylie and see how she thought things went.

"Hiya!" Kylie answered.

"Hey, you sound extremely cheery. So I'm guessing that means it went well?"

"That's why you're the detective and I'm the accountant." She laughed. "Yeah it was really sweet, he got me a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers, somehow he knew they were my favorite…"

"I plead the 5th"

"Yeah ok, well thanks anyway. And then he took me to this new cute little Indian restaurant in Midtown. The food was so good!"

"And then where'd you go, because I called you at 11. So I know you got home late."

"We just walked around for a bit and found this coffee place in Bryant Park, so we had dessert there and just talked for a while. Then he brought me home around 12:30."

"Well it sounds like it was a great date."

"I mean at first I wasn't even sure if it was a date by the way he asked me but, I…it was just…perfect." Kylie finished in a dreamy voice.

"You two made-out on your stairs didn't you?" Michelle asked laughing.

"I don't kiss and tell" Michelle could tell Kylie was fake scowling at the other end. "So, when are you and your hottie cop going out? And don't even try and tell me you don't like him. I know you do."

"Nice change of subject." Michelle smiled. "I dunno, I mean he's a great guy, and we have a lot of fun hanging out—"

"And flirt constantly."

"I do not!...ok well maybe a little." Michelle laughed. "But—"

"But what? There's no buts in this situation, you like him, he likes you, he's damn good looking, funny, smart, well I'm assuming smart since he's a CSI and all. _And_ he is definitely not intimidated by you. Don says the two of you tease each other all the time. So stop being difficult woman and just go out with him!" Kylie finished laughing.

"Yes Ma'am!" Michelle laughed with her friend. "Well he did ask me to go to the batting cages with him tomorrow. But I don't think it's like a date or anything."

"Yeah ok and when you two start making out on your front porch I get to have a laugh at your expense."

"Correct, and until then I just get to laugh at _your _expense, and of course Don's" Someone cleared their throat behind Michelle and she turned to face Don who was raising an eyebrow clearly having heard his name. "right here, so time for lunch. I'll see you at 8!" she added quickly hanging up before Kylie could respond.

"Talking about me?" he asked smirking.

"No, I just saw your abnormally large shadow on my desk and knew you were there."

"Right…let's go to lunch so you can tell me what Kylie said about me." She stood and followed him to the elevators.

"Ugh, one of these days I'm just gonna lose my patience and slap you in the back of the head like I used to do when you said stupid things."

"If you can even reach up there, shorty."

"Be careful _Donald_. I am still Kylie's best friend; you could lose a lot of valuable information by getting on my bad side."

"Women." Don muttered earning him a slap in the chest, he rolled his eyes and Michelle shook her head at his antics.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was almost 6pm and Michelle was ready to get out of work. The day had gone by so incredibly slowly she wasn't sure what to do with herself. Then again a day where there wasn't much to do, although boring, was a good day for the city; if she had nothing to do it meant there were no dead bodies being found. She rested her head in her hands and stared at the clock.

"Hey Ronnie, look what we got here."

"You know they're not paying you to stare at the clock kiddo."

Michelle rolled her eyes and turned to face her brothers, "I didn't know the circus was in town, what are you two clowns doing in PD?"

"Is that anyway to greet your loving older brothers?" Ron asked.

Michelle sighed and got up to give them both hugs. Ritchie, short for Richard, was only a year older than her, and the same age as Flack and CJ, he had short, almost buzz cut light brown hair, and the same olive/tan skin and dark brown eyes that she had. He was only about 5'9, and when they were younger they would call her, Ritchie and Flack the triplets or 3 musketeers since they always hung out together. He was the most mischievous of the group always getting into or coming up with ideas to get them all into trouble when they were kids. Her oldest brother Ronnie or Ron had dark brown hair like hers, green eyes and a paler skin than the other two. He was four years older than Ritchie and about 6ft tall, he had always been closer with their older cousin Joe who was around the same age and worked with him and Michelle's dad in the DA's office. Both of her brothers had the same sense of humor as she did. They loved to tease each other, but when it came down to it, would do anything for one another.

"That's better" Ritchie said ruffling her hair. Michelle swatted his hand and gave him a little shove.

"Ass" she muttered fixing her hair.

"Aww, now this is cute, Kodak family moment right here." CJ said walking over to them with Danny behind him.

"Ceej!" Ritchie said as they hugged. "What's good man?"

"Nothing, just the usual. How about you guys?"

"Same old, same old." Ron answered.

"I hear ya, anyway boys this is Danny Messer, Danny this is Ron and Ritchie Spencer. The guys shook hands.

"So I hear you get stuck with my sister on cases a lot?" Ritchie asked.

"Yeah, it's not so bad though" Michelle smirked at her brother. "At least she gives me something to laugh about." Michelle shook her head giving Danny a look.

"Well I like him already." Ritchie said giving Danny a pat on the back.

"You shouldn't scowl like that Michey…I mean your face might actually end up that way." Ron countered at his sister's glare.

"Would you look at the time, its 6 o'clock, and my shift's over officially. So if you boys will excuse me, I have a life to get back to." Michelle said weaving her way out of the group and heading towards the door.

"Oh come on sis, Ben and Jerry can wait, keep us entertained until Don gets here."

"For your information _Richard_, I have plans that don't involve my freezer this evening. Now, I really must get home and change. Behave yourselves kids, I don't feel like bailing anyone out of jail, _again._" Michelle smirked looking at her brothers specifically, she could tell they were about to respond so she rushed out the door.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was 7:45 and Michelle still had not decided what to wear. She had her hair up in a messy bun with a few curly pieces hanging loosely and her straightened bangs falling over her left eye. Her makeup consisted of smudged black eyeliner for a slightly smokey look and pink lip-gloss; she liked to keep it more on the natural side. Kara had gotten the girls on the list for the opening of _The Plumm_, some new club in the city since the PR company she worked for was running the party. Michelle had at least picked out bottoms, a pair of dark wash jeans which were tight but not ridiculous. They fit her well and made her legs look longer, always a plus since she was a mere 5'4. She started to search through her closet again when her bell rang.

"Oh thank god." She muttered and rushed to open the door, it was Kylie. "Help?" she asked her already dressed friend. Kylie smiled, shaking her head she walked to Michelle's closet. A few minutes later she pulled out a green silk sweet-heart neckline tube top that had rouched fabric at the top. She also pulled out a pair of black open toed stilettos from Michelle's shoe rack and handed them to her.

"What would I do without you?" Michelle asked smiling at her friend.

"Leave the house in your underwear, apparently."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Around 12:30 pm Michelle groaned, leaning over she hit the off button on her alarm clock and stared at her ceiling. She hadn't gotten home until about 5:30 that morning and was racking her brain as to why she would even set an alarm, when she remembered that she was supposed to go to the batting cages with Danny at 2. She sighed, heaving herself out of bed and trudging into her adjoining bathroom. She turned on her shower, and went to grab a towel when she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Her hair was still in a messy bun, but it had fallen considerably and her eyeliner was now so smudged she could pass for a raccoon. She laughed shaking her head at her disheveled reflection, deciding it was a fair price to pay for not having a hang over. The girls, minus Kara who was working the event, had all arrived by 8:15 and decided to grab dinner before heading over to the club at 11. When they arrived at the club Kara had managed to get them a table near the dance floor. They danced and drank until 3:30 when the party started to wind down, they decided it was still pretty early and went out for breakfast. After a few hours of that they each headed home in cabs after having a night that rivaled their partying college days, swearing to make "girl's night" a new permanent monthly event.

It was now 1:50 and Michelle had showered, changed, and just returned from taking Rascal for a walk. She had decided to wear a pair of light denim Bermuda cutoffs, and a white wife-beater. Her wet hair was pulled into a low ponytail, her black sunglasses resting on her head, keeping her bangs out of her face. She wore her navy blue allstar sneakers and the only makeup she had on was chap-stick and the remains of her eyeliner from last night which would not come off in the shower. She was putting Rascal some food when the bell downstairs rang, she buzzed the person in, knowing it was most likely Danny. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door she smiled as she heard Rascal barking and running from the other side of her apartment to the door. She opened the door to find Danny wearing white and navy blue basketball shorts, sneakers, a white wife-beater and an unbuttoned Mets Jersey. Smiling she attempted to let him in as her dog happily pranced around him, begging for attention.

"Hey." He said hugging her and laughing at Rascal's behavior.

"Hey…let me just grab my bag and then we can go." She smiled heading into her bedroom to retrieve her purse. "Ok, I'm ready." She announced walking back into the room to find Danny bent over her dog and rubbing his stomach.

"Ok. You better behave while we're gone, buddy." He said looking sternly at the dog, who merely barked in response and happily walked into the living room. Michelle laughed as they exited her apartment and she locked the door.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I thought you've been to the batting cages before. And I figured by your 3rd round you'd have known the intent is to hit the ball with the bat." Danny mused watching Michelle let the first ball go past her. He had already taken his 3 turns, which Michelle had spent teasing and making fun of him from behind the gate. She didn't respond, deciding it was better to bean the next pitch instead. A couple of balls later and of course a few jabs from Danny, Michelle emerged from the batter's box and walked over to him removing her helmet.

"What, no ending remarks?" she joked.

"Nah, you did pretty well."

She looked at him curiously but decided to take the compliment. "Why thank you."

"…I mean for a girl and all"

"I knew there was a catch to that"

"And yet you still fell for it."

Michelle rolled her eyes at his comment slapping her helmet into his stomach and walking off "Come on Babe Ruth, lets go get you some lunch."

Danny had insisted on paying for everything else so Michelle had firmly decided she was buying lunch. She found him sitting on the top of a bench staring intently at the reflection the sun was creating over the water. Walking over to Danny she handed him a hotdog, fries and a coke. He smiled and moved over for her to sit. After a few minutes of silence Michelle broke it.

"So how was your evening out with my brothers?" she asked taking a bite of her hotdog.

"It was fun; I can definitely see where you get your sense of humor from…So how was your night?"

"Good, me and the girls went out to some club, we haven't had that much fun since…well, college. You're lucky I set an alarm this morning, or else there was no way I would have woken up." She smiled.

"Uh oh, a girls gone wild type evening, huh?"

She just glared. "Maybe in your dreams."

He laughed. Danny looked at his watch, almost 5, and thought for a minute. "I believe there's a Met game on tonight, I have a big screen, HD and beer?"

"Hmm…I_ am_ a Mets fan." She said with a grin, jumping off the bench and throwing out her trash, waiting for him to follow suit.

"Well, that's good. I don't know if we could be friends if you were a Yankee fan." He teased joining her and walking towards the exit.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I always thought that batting stance was kinda silly." Michelle said sipping her beer and looking at the batter on the television. His arms were up way to far over his head, he was moving the bat back and forth staring intently at the pitcher, but really, it just looked comical.

"Yeah well, at least he hits the ball." Danny joked.

"Hey, my stance was not that bad at all, and I hit almost all of them thank you very much. I dare you to try and name 5 women you know who have hit that many."

"I can't, most girls I know have an awful stance for hitting balls, but at least us guys get to check out their ass." He said with a wink.

"So that's why you invited me along, to stare at my ass all day?" She asked with a sly grin.

"No, but that would have been a nice bonus." Michelle took another sip of her beer and shook her head with a smile, it was time for the 7th inning stretch and that meant commercials. Danny looked at her as if to say something and then turned his attention back to the screen. "So, how long are we gonna keep playing this game?"

"It's only the 7th and the Mets have come back from worse, but if you—"

"I wasn't talking about the baseball game."

"Oh." Michelle sat there trying to figure out what to say, not realizing Danny had begun speaking again.

"We flirt with each other, and keep throwing off these 'I like you' vibes—you're not listening to me are you?"

She smiled innocently at him "No?" He sighed, moving to get up, when she caught his arm with her hand. "Danny…" she said quietly, making sure he was looking at her before continuing, "Just kiss me."

He didn't need telling twice, moving a stray piece of hair out of her eyes, he slid his hand around the back of her neck closing the shrinking distance between them. Their lips met innocently at first, and then more passionately as time went on. Michelle snaked her arms around Danny's neck, running one of her hands through his hair as he placed his other hand on cushion behind her and lightly pushed her down on the couch. She felt his tongue graze her bottom lip and parted them willingly allowing him to explore her mouth. Her hands slid from his neck and hair to the inside of his unbuttoned jersey, resting on his shoulders. Tracing his muscular arms, she skillfully guided him out of the shirt, grabbing it in her right hand she threw it on the floor. Michelle nibbled lightly on Danny's bottom lip pushing him upwards. She pulled away and he raised his eyebrow at her curiously; her only response was to push him farther so he was now sitting upright, his back against the couch. Smiling she straddled him, kissing along his jaw line. Danny grunted placing one hand at the base of her neck pulling her lips back to his. Running his other hand down her back he stopped at the hem of her shirt, his fingers expertly tracing her exposed skin. Michelle shivered involuntarily at his touch and she felt Danny smile against her lips. His hand began to roam farther up her back and under her shirt when Danny's dog barked loudly causing them to break apart like guilty teenagers. Michelle blushed and got off Danny's lap, returning to her previous position on the couch.

"I think we just got walked in on by your dog."

Danny laughed bending down to pet his dog, who had his discarded jersey in his mouth.

"Not so bad I guess, I've definitely been walked in on by worse." She continued.

"I bet you have." Danny smirked, the red on Michelle's cheeks growing. "You were probably doing worse too."

"Hey now, that's not very nice." Michelle pouted and threw one of the couch pillows at him, hitting Danny square in the face. She smiled at him innocently; Danny narrowed his eyes and lunged at her. Michelle ducked out of the way just in time, running behind his pool table. She faked left and ran right hoping to throw him off but he was too quick and caught her. He picked Michelle up and throwing her of his shoulder. "Now you're going down Spencer." Michelle tried to wriggle out of his grasp but failed, squealing as Danny threw her onto his bed and landed on top of her.

"Dannnnnnny! Geroff, you're fat and crushing my lungs!" she joked hitting her fists lightly against his back.

Danny easily maneuvered himself so that he had pinned Michelle's arms over her head and had a knee on either side of her hips. He smirked at her, clearly not getting off anytime soon "so I'm fat now?"

"Yeah you are." Danny raised his eyebrow at her making himself more comfortable. "I mean no! You're super, um…sexy!" Michelle said winking at him.

"I better be." He mumbled leaning down to kiss her.


	7. Chapter 7

After spending a few more hours at Danny's place hanging out Michelle decided to head home and get to the pile of that laundry she'd been neglecting. Plus, she knew that if she didn't leave, she'd be there until the next morning. And as fun as that was sounding to her, Michelle wasn't the type to give it up that easily…even if Danny made her think about it every time he wore a wife-beater or tight t-shirt and a smirk on his face. Michelle had just finished folding 3 large loads of now clean laundry and plopped down on her couch putting her feet up on her coffee table. Rascal crawled across the couch and placed his head in her lap. She smiled and scratched his head, enjoying one of the rare quiet moments she was allowed to have. Sighing deeply she rested her head on the back of the couch, as soon as Michelle closed her eyes her phone rang.

"Of course." She muttered and reluctantly rose from her very comfortable position. "Hello?"

"Aww, you don't sound too happy I guess that means I can't tease you can I?" Kylie teased on the other end of the phone.

Michelle laughed "Hey Kyles."

"So how'd it go?!?" she asked excitedly.

"How about you come over with some take out and I'll tell you all about it?"

"Ok, I'm not doing anything right now anyway…Chinese?"

"Sounds good to me; I'm going to call Rebecca as well." Michelle responded.

"Kay, I'll see you in 20."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The 3 woman had a fun night just talking and joking with each other, of course Michelle was teased endlessly about her 'date' with Danny, more so the part about being caught making-out by his dog. Sunday she went out for a run with Rascal and did some grocery shopping, then headed over to the Flacks' house for dinner. Both of her brothers spent the entire time talking about their night out, but a lot of it was funny stuff Danny had said. If Ron wasn't married and had kids and Ritchie was into guys, she was pretty sure they would have asked him out. But now it was Monday morning and Michelle had just started making coffee and was going to get dressed for her shift when there was a knock at her door. She raised an eyebrow looking at her clock which read 7:30 and wondered who would possibly be awake and coming to see her at this hour, definitely not one of her friends. She opened the door and was surprised to see Danny standing there in his work clothes with a bag in his hand.

"Hey."

"Hey, I figured since you and I both have the early shifts you might want breakfast…but I guess I should have called first." He said tilting his head to the side slightly and unconsciously licking his lip, leaning against the door frame. Michelle started to raise her eyebrow at his action when she remembered she was still in her pjs, which was a blue sports bra and a very small pair of black shorts. Michelle's eyes went wide but realized that they were still standing in her doorway.

"I just made some coffee want a cup?" She said smiling and taking the bag out of his hands, walking towards her kitchen.

"Sure." Danny nodded following her. He let his eyes wander over the curves of her small but toned frame; his mind filling with images of their evening on Saturday.

"Milk and sugar?"

"Hmm?" Danny shook his head, being pulled from his thoughts, wondering when he had sat down. "Oh, uh yeah." Mentally scolding himself for letting his mind drift; he had to push all of those thoughts out of his head, especially if they were going to work today.

"Awake much?" Michelle laughed handing him his coffee "I'm going to get dressed; I'll be back in 5."

"No need, you could just go to work like that. I know I wouldn't mind." He smirked at her.

Michelle just rolled her eyes, forcing her brain to ignore the thoughts that came into her mind every time Danny smirked and walked towards her bedroom. "Oh and Danny, if you wanted to check out my ass, all you had to do was ask." She teased not turning around, hearing Danny choke slightly on his coffee, she had felt his stare and laughed at his reaction. Five minutes later she walked back into her kitchen in a pair of black pants and a short sleeved blue and white striped button down shirt, and heels.

"You were really serious about taking 5 minutes."

"Yup…so what's for breakfast?" She asked sitting on a chair next to him.

"Nothing fancy" he said reaching into the bag "Some bagels, cream cheese and a few pastries."

"Wow, you nut! Did you buy one of everything?" Michelle laughed.

"I don't know what you usually like to eat in the mornings so I picked a bunch of stuff out." Danny said kind of embarrassed.

Michelle smiled and reached across him for a bagel, kissing his cheek on the way back to her seat. "Thanks…I guess this means you'll have to come over for breakfast for the rest of the week then."

Danny smiled "Guess so."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After leaving Danny at the front door Michelle walked to her desk and saw Don waiting for her with a huge smile on his face. Her smile slowly changed into a frown as she got closer to him, noticing that his smile turned into a smirk.

"What do you know?" Michelle sighed as she sat down at her desk.

"I think the real question is, what _don't_ I know?"

Michelle blushed. "Why do guys I get involved with always know you?"

"So you two are involved now, huh?"

Michelle slapped her forehead with her hand but fortunately her phone rang saving her from further embarrassment. "Spencer…yeah…no, no I've got nothing to do…ok be right there."

"You got a lucky break for now kiddo, but wait till later."

"Ugh…I hope you're giving Danny a hard time too."

"Me, give Danny a hard time…nah, I gave him a pat on the back and a high five."

"Ass" she said slapping his shoulder and walking out to the next scene.

"Hey Michelle what's going on here?" Hawkes asked walking into the room where your DB was found.

"A stripper, called "Kandy," she died sometime after her last client, as you can see they were jello-wrestling. She was found just as she is now on the spotlight."

"There are some signs of struggle on her body but I don't see any possible COD other than burning right now. We'll just have to wait for the autopsy."

"Alright I'm going to go track down some clients, I'll see you back at the morgue, Sheldon." He nodded and Michelle turned to exit bumping right into Mac. "Oh, hey! Sorry Mac."

"That's ok, so I hear you and Danny went on a date this weekend?"

She blushed putting her face in her hands "Oh man…does everyone know about that?"

He laughed putting a hand on her shoulder, "Probably, I mean we had a pool going, Stella won though. I had you guys for next week."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Around eleven Michelle had returned to her desk from doing some interviews and background checks on Joanna Kelton aka Kandy, her co-workers, clients, etc. She had a minute to catch lunch and decided to call Flack to see if he wanted to join her. She also wanted to know exactly how much he and the whole lab apparently, knew about her and Danny.

"Hey Donnie."

"Michelle."

"What are you mad about? The whole lab and PD aren't taking bets on your personal life."  
"No, but somehow you got the jello wrestling stripper case and I got the rich paranoid, OCD guy."

"That's called karma my friend…anyway, I got some time for lunch what about you, hungry yet?"

"Yeah, yeah, Mrs. Dali llama, give me like a half hour and I can go."

"Alright, sounds good." Michelle hung up and started on some work she had on her desk. 10 minutes later her cell rang, without looking at the screen she answered. "Spencer."

"Miche…listen I'm gonna have to cancel our lunch…Something kinda came up with our case here."

"Yeah, ok. No problem…Is everything alright?"

"Yes and no at the same time?"

"Don…"

"Well, the vic had transformed his bedroom into a panic room, which Danny by accidentally activated. And now he's stuck in there with the DB and without a kit until the locksmith can get him out. Which he said is going to take hours and he's going to have to cut the electricity to do it. But don't get all worried, ok? Danny's fine and has figured out a way to process the scene."

"So he's stuck in a panic room with a dead body, all the evidence and no kit?"

"Uh…yeah?"

"Ouch, he's gotta be grumpy. Alright, I'm gonna call him in a bit, good luck on your case and getting him out. I'll talk to you later."

"Later kiddo."

Michelle hung up and returned to her paperwork, deciding to get lunch at another time. Around noon she was paged by Hawkes to meet down in autopsy. As she pushed the doors open to the morgue she heard Dr. Pino, Hawkes and Mac laughing. "So you guys have a party and I don't get invited?"

"Women are always fashionably late and then wonder why they miss everything" Dr Pino joked.

"Cute…so what's so funny?"

"Dr. Pino just walked Messer through estimating TOD of the panic room vic." Michelle raised her eyebrow at Sheldon, clearly not finding the humor in it.

"You have to stick a thermometer into the backside of the body in order to find the appropriate temperature and then from that calculate how long he or she has been dead." Mac said noting her confusion.

"Ah, gotcha…So boys, what can you tell me about our jello loving friend here?"

About two hours later after processing the scene with his makeshift kit, thanks to the well stocked supply of chemicals Mr. Hudson had in his room, Danny sighed and sat on the bed when his phone went off. Fully expecting to be his brother again, he went to press the ignore button when he noticed the name on the Caller ID. Despite his current predicament a smile managed to find it ways onto his lips.

"Hey there slugger."

Michelle laughed. "Hey, so I hear you're stuck with some really hot cadaver."

"Whoever told you that got it all wrong. I'm locked in a hot panic room, with a cadaver, sweating like a madman."

"Aww, that sucks, I wish I could do something to make it better."

"Well…You know what would make my day a whole lot better is if I could get one of those massages you're so good at when I get outta here."

"Is that so? Hmm…I think I can pencil you in for tonight."

"Pencil? I don't even get something more permanent, like pen?"

"Just be glad that I like you, I don't do this for just anybody."

"What can I say, I'm a lucky guy…Speaking of getting lucky, what are you doing Friday night?"

Michelle could feel him smirking on the other end of the phone, knowing for a fact that he made it have a double meaning on purpose. "I don't know, but I have a feeling you're about to give me something to do."

"I can give you a lot of things to do, but I was thinking a nice dinner in the city, just you and me?"

"A nice dinner? Wow, I must be moving up in the ranks here."

"Can't help it, you're quite intriguing. So how 'bout it?"

"I'm glad I fascinate you, and I'd love to go."

"Alright, it's a date. I'll see you later tonight then slugger?"

"Yup, try not to go nuts alright?"

"I can't promise that. Now go get back to work you slacker."

"Yes sir!" she mocked and hung up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And then the jackass opens the door. He had the combo the whole freaking time! So thinking he has me caught, he tries to get me to hand over the evidence we have but Stella and Flack come in, guns out, so the guy freaks and tries to take me hostage. But I was close enough to the table, so I grabbed one of my chemical mixtures and threw it in his face, giving Stella a chance to line up a shot, he goes down, boom. Cuffs on and we got him." Danny relayed sitting on Michelle's couch while she stood behind him massaging his temples moving down to his ears and neck. He groaned closing his eyes and leaning his head back towards her. "But this is definitely more than making up for it."

"Glad I can help." Michelle smiled, bending over to kiss his lips. "Alright, on your stomach and take your shirt off." She said lightly slapping her hands against his shoulders.

"If you wanted to get me in bed all you had to do was ask, no need to use this as an excuse." Danny smirked obliging to her request.

"Yeah, yeah, you're lucky I _somehow _find your arrogance extremely attractive." She retorted walking around the couch so she could straddle his back. Truthfully she could have done the massage with his shirt on, but she really saw no reason why she should waste the opportunity, I mean hell the guy was incredibly fit.

"Yermsphy-an" his response being muffled by the pillow he had buried his face in. Michelle laughed and started massaging his shoulders going down his back, occasionally kissing the back of his neck. After about 10 min she stopped and moved to get off of Danny, when he grabbed her and flipped them over so he was now lying on top of her.

"Now, _this_ is attractive." He murmured his face close to her ear, his scruff tickling her neck ever so slightly as he kissed from her ear, down to her jaw line, working his way horizontally across to her lips. Where he hovered for a moment, just barely touching them and then continued to kiss down the front of her neck to her collar bone. A quiet moan involuntarily escaped from her mouth causing Danny to smirk and kiss her lips passionately. Michelle was thankful they were lying down because if they had been standing she was pretty sure she would have fallen over by now. Being around Danny was dangerous, he was such a passionate person it evoked a new sense of desire in her, she couldn't get enough of him. Her hands found there way back to his neck pulling Danny closer. As his hands traced her sides, he slowly started to push her shirt up exposing her stomach; replacing his hands with his mouth, leaving a trail of kisses from her belly button up towards her chest as Michelle ran her hands through his hair. Danny had reached the middle of Michelle's stomach when her phone rang. Danny rested his chin against her stomach and looked up at her, Michelle shrugged.

"I have a working answering machine" she replied winking at him.

"MICHELLE ELIZABETH SPENCER! I know you're there! This is a GIRL EMERGENCY! " Kara's voice came blaring throughout her apartment as she ranted into the answering machine.

Danny blew a raspberry on her stomach and got up from his current position. Smiling he waved her off "Go, answer it"

Michelle smiled apologetically and gave him a kiss on the cheek before getting up. "This better involve loss of limb or death" she muttered.

"I know the hot Italian cop is probably charming your pants off, literally, but this is—"

"I'm here Kara, what is it?" she sighed grabbing the phone and walking towards her kitchen.

"I desperately need to borrow a pair of your black pumps."

Michelle's eyebrows furrowed in anger "That's an emergency?!?"

"Yes! I need them for work, its important, and I know you're home because I've been standing across the street for the past 10 minutes while you have not been answering your cell phone!"

"…Ring the bell and I'll buzz you up." Michelle sighed, hanging up the phone and walk back towards Danny who had put his wife-beater back on.

"So what's the emergency?"

"Apparently shoes are." Danny raised his eyebrow at her when the bell rang, Michelle walked over to the door waiting for Kara to get up the stairs.

"Why didn't you just ring my doorbell in the first place?" she said at the sight of her friend.

"No offense hun, but I have no urge to see you naked, now him that might be another story." She said nodding towards Danny as she made her way into Michelle's bedroom. Danny just laughed as Michelle rolled her eyes. About 2 minutes later Kara walked out with a pair of pumps in her hand. "And I'm off, thanks hun!" She kissed Michelle on the cheek and was halfway out the door when she stopped and turned to face them. "And Danny, don't be a fool and make sure to wrap your tool!" Kara managed to get out with a straight face, quickly slamming the door behind her.

"I need new friends." Michelle joked as she plopped down on the couch next to Danny.

"Nah, I like 'em. They keep things interesting."

"Oh, so the only intriguing thing about me is my friends. That's why you've been keeping me around."

"You caught me." Michelle pouted. "Aww, you know I'm just kidding around." She turned away from him, feigning hurt. Danny laughed poking her in the side until she started laughing as well and pulled her sideways onto his lap. "That's better, now don't be so silly. I keep you around because you're funny, sarcastic, smart, a Mets fan and not to mention you've got a pretty nice ass."

She slapped his chest lightly. "That was really sweet up until the ass part, but you know if we're going to go there yours isn't too bad either."

"Is that so?" Danny smirked.

"Oh no, don't get all cocky on me now."

"And why is that?"

"Because every time you smirk it drives me nuts…and I want to watch sports center." She said leaning across him to grab the remote.

"Sports Center, huh?" Danny grabbed the remote out of her hand and began tickling her in retaliation. "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"


	8. Chapter 8

Tuesday and Wednesday had gone by fairly uneventfully, and thankfully everyone's teasing had died down substantially. It was now Thursday morning and Michelle stood at the entrance of an apartment waiting for the CSI's to arrive.

"Well hello boys." She smiled as Danny and Hawkes appeared down the hall.

"Michelle" Hawkes nodded smiling at her.

"Spencer, what are we looking at here?" Danny asked following her under the crime tape and into the bedroom of the apartment.

"Kathleen Dunley, seems like a wild night gone wrong. She's got some flowers on her table, from a Michel." She said pointing to a table near the window, covered with empty champagne glasses and a bottle of scotch.

"There's semen on the sheets, and from the looks of things this was consensual." Hawkes noted.

"There's blood in her ear, and a strange pattern of bruising in her mouth, it looks almost like small circles." Danny said turning off his flashlight and stepping away from the body. "What do you think Hawkes?"

"Well we have at least one suspect, Michel, but who knows if he was the guy she slept with, I say we get prints."

"Humidifier chamber?" Danny asked.

"That would definitely work"

"Alright, I'm off to go find our mysterious Michel, I'll call you if I get anything." Michelle said giving the guys a wave and leaving them to their work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So what you show up at her apartment with some flowers, maybe get a little action, and then watch her choke?" Danny probed Michel Hetu in one of the interrogation rooms.

"I sent the flowers yes, but I didn't sleep with her. Though that was my original intent."

"Thought you might charm her out of suing you? But it didn't work, did it?" Michelle questioned, eyebrows raised.

"Sounds like motive to me." Danny smirked.

"I'd have to agree on that one, it's not looking so good for you Michel."

"No, no I didn't sleep with her or kill her I swear! I showed up her place and poured on the charm, but she turned me away. Nothing happened, I barely even got past the front door. She was going to ruin me, I had to at least try to get her out of it." Michel pleaded.

"We'll see what the DNA says." Michelle said as Danny pulled out a cotton-swab.

"I dunno about him, I'm going to check up on the details of this lawsuit, lawyers on both sides, etc." Michelle said as she and Danny exited the interrogation room and headed back to the main part of PD.

"That sounds good, I need to get this back to the lab and then see if the stomach contents have come back yet. Maybe whatever she choked on is in there."

"Yeah and you need to check up on your babies." Michelle joked.

"Ha, I almost forgot about them."

"What a loving father you are."

"Pshh, I'm very loving. Just wait till Friday, you'll see." Danny responded.

"You seem expect a lot out of this dinner, I hope whatever it is you're planning delivers, because I don't just give it up to every Joe-shmoe that takes me on a date."

"Who said it was a date?" Danny smirked and raised his eyebrow, confident he had won this round.

"It damn well better be if you're expecting what I think you are. They let you out of the lab for a half hour and you've gone crazy, thinking you can win with me." Michelle laughed nudging him towards the door.

"We'll see who wins in the end Spencer, you and I both know you can't resist my charm." He said winking at her.

"Yeah, yeah. We'll place wagers later, now get back to work." She shook her head and smiled as he exited the building, thinking about what he said. Was she going to let it get that far or not? She definitely wanted to but she didn't want things to get complicated…they worked together, no need for things to get ugly unnecessarily because as soon as they reached such a level of intimacy they would have to have _that_ conversation. But as she tried to convince herself No, she felt more and more sure that it was a Yes, there was something about Danny Messer and she couldn't stop thinking about him. "Ugh Messer, why are you so damn cute." She muttered to herself as she started on her legal research.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michelle had finally found all of Kathleen's legal records, and boy did she have a lot, when she got a page from Danny. "Come meet the kids in the lab." She laughed taking her findings and heading to meet Danny's "offspring".

"Alright let's see them" Michelle said walking into the lab where they were incubating the eggs.

"Peruvian centipedes" Hawkes stated as she looked into the glass case.

"Aww, Danny, they look just like you!" she joked.

"I'm not even going there with you today" he rolled his eyes but clearly kidding "But how did that get in our vic's ear if its on tonight's menu?"

"Ah, I have the answer to that! Five years ago, yeah she's been pulling the scam that long if not longer, Kathleen Dunley sued Larry Whitford, he lost his restaurant, and it was all over the papers, pretty career damaging experience for a chef."

"There was no one by that name working at or attending the exhibit." Hawkes pointed out.

"That's because Larry Whitford is now Tony Collins. He's been working under a new name." She explained.

"Let's go get him then. Ladies first" Danny said motioning to Michelle.

After their arrest Michelle and Hawkes took Tony to the station and booked him, they met up with Flack who had just finished his case. He mentioned that apparently Danny had something for all of them.

"A gift for two cases successfully closed, I hope everybody's hungry." Danny joked pulling out a stack of cartons from a large paper bag. "We have breaded tarantulas, mealworm a la vodka…"

Michelle picked up one of the tarantulas, biting part of its leg. Making a sour face she said "Just like chicken…"

The rest of the group looked at them disgusted, especially Don. "I hope this isn't a preview of the 2 of you's Friday night."

"At 10grand a plate? She should be so lucky." Danny joked.

"Alright everyone, pizza in my office." Mac said with a smile shaking his head at the two of them.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday was going by painfully slow for Michelle. All she wanted to do was get home and get dressed for her dinner with Danny. He wouldn't tell her where they were going, only to dress nicely. She had a strong suspicion Don knew and tried to get it out of him; partially because she was curious but more so because she was bored.

"Finally" Michelle muttered getting her stuff together and standing from her desk as Don walked back in the room.

"Someone's anxious to get outta here."

"Yes, yes I am. Now if you'll excuse me I have a wardrobe to go fret over." She joked.

"You've been planning in your mind what to wear all day, and you _still_ haven't picked anything yet?" Don teased.

"How did—"

"Come on Michey…I've know you for how long?" she put up her hands and nodded in agreement. "Plus, you were talking out loud before. I'd go with the dress if I were you, guys always like a little leg." He nudged her, walking off towards the lockers. "Later kiddo!"

"Yeah, yeah….see ya Don." She called as she passed the locker rooms on her way out.

After showering, trying on countless outfits, and a lot of phone calls to Kylie asking what she thought she should wear, Michelle was finally ready. She had ultimately decided on wearing a short satin purple dress that showed off a lot of leg, as Don had suggested. Her hair was left down, some gel added to make the waves in her hair stand out more, a thin line of black eyeliner rimmed her eyes and a clear shimmering lip gloss coated her lips. Pulling her favorite pair of black pumps out of her closet there was a knock at her door.

"It's open!" she called assuming it was Danny, and sat down on her bed to lace the fabric straps of her shoes.

"Michelle?" she heard Danny ask from her foyer.

"Hey, I'll be right out. Make yourself at home." Michelle said finishing up her shoes and taking one last look at herself in her mirror. She wasn't sure why she was so nervous, it was almost like being in high school again. Except the fact that she and Danny had gone through all the awkward "firsts" already, so what was there to be nervous about? Giving her hair one last fix she grabbed her black clutch and walked out of her room.

Meanwhile Danny had been playing with her dog in the entry way stood at the sound of Michelle's approaching heels, his mouth falling open at the sight of her.

"Sorry about making you wait, I had to fix my shoes." She said with a smile.

Danny's eyes hadn't made it down that far yet, but as soon as she mentioned it his eyes traveled down to her lower half. Despite being short in height, Michelle had long, lean legs that were definitely accentuated by that dress and her heels. "It was worth the wait." He smiled walking towards her and extending his arm. "You look…beautiful, and that's an understatement."

Michelle blushed, taking his arm as they walked out of his apartment and to his car. "You don't look to bad yourself." It was the truth, Danny looked…well, hot. He was wearing a pair of black suit pants and matching jacket, which he left open exposing a long sleeve medium blue button down, that when paired with the all black suit made his incredible blue eyes stand out even more.

"So, where are we going?" Michelle asked climbing into the passenger side of Danny's SUV.

"Nope it's a surprise. And Don better not have told you either."

"Please, I may have grown up with him but that doesn't mean he wont take any opportunity to tease me, about how he knows something I don't know."

About 20 minutes later they pulled into a parking garage in downtown Manhattan. Danny got out first handing his keys to the valet and walked around to help Michelle out, putting his hand on her lower back and leading her into the street. She smiled realizing where they were "Little Italy? …I should have known."

Wrapping his arm around her waist, Danny pulled Michelle closer to him. "You really do look gorgeous tonight…Not that you don't everyday. It's just that if you came into PD wearing that, boy, I think people would start committing crimes so you'd have to come and arrest them."

Michelle just barely stifled a snort and began to laugh "Yeah well, you keep wearing blue shirts with dark suits, so your eyes stand out, and all the secretaries are going to start paging you for no reason."

"We are quite the attractive pair then….wait, the hot blonde in the morgue thinks I'm good-looking?" Michelle raised her eyebrow at him, but Danny just smiled. "I'm just kidding, I'd pick you over her any day…now the red head from the 3rd floor…that might—Ow" he laughed as she slapped his arm. He kissed her cheek in response. "Ah, we're here." Danny announced stopping outside of a restaurant called Il Cortile.

"Name please?" asked the seating host.

"Danny Messer"

"Yes, party of 2, right this way." He said motioning for them to follow. He lead them through a dimly lit bar area into a beautiful dinning room that looked like the garden of an Italian villa. Michelle couldn't help but be impressed, especially with the large all glass ceiling overheard, adding to the illusion. Sitting down at the table she continued the look around, staring at the large flowers erupting from the center of the room.

"You like it?" Danny said smiling at her.

"It's beautiful, how did you find this place?"

"I'm Italian, of course I'm gonna know about this place."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours later Michelle and Danny left the restaurant, in high spirits after having a fantastic dinner.

"Now normally I would offer to get some dessert and coffee, especially since you insisted on paying for dinner, but I don't think I can eat another thing. I'm stuffed."

Danny laughed "I warned you that the food was fantastic." He said, lacing his fingers with hers as they walked back to the car.

During the car ride back Michelle stayed quiet, lost in thought about how perfect this date was. She knew she was lucky to have the opportunity to get to know Danny better. Sure he had a bit of a temper, and he could let his emotions get the best of him sometimes but he was a genuine guy with a huge heart and undeniable loyalty to the people and things (like his job) that he cared about. During dinner he had really opened up to her, even talking about his family and how his brother had fallen in with the wrong crowd and how it made him want to be a cop. She knew he didn't open up to people about this sort of thing often, and it was nice to know that he trusted her enough to tell her.

"Hey newbie, are you coming?" Michelle jumped slightly, jolted from her thoughts. "I know that would get your attention. Anyways, we're back…so, what were you thinking about? Me and how wonderful I am at planning dates, perhaps?"

"Who said this was a date?" Michelle smirked repeating his own words from earlier and getting out of the car.

"Alright, alright; I guess I deserved that one." He laughed joining her on the curb. "So…want to come up for some coffee or something?"

"Sure." She said walking towards the steps to his apartment.

"So I'll make us some coffee then? Maybe a little Bailey's to go with it?" He winked, depositing the contents of his pockets on the island counter in his kitchen.

"I dunno…I'm not really in the mood for coffee, per say." Michelle smiled slyly walking towards him.

"Oh really, well what are you in the mood for?"

"Hmm…something Italian maybe?" she smirked running her hand down the outside of the buttons on his shirt and stopping at his belt buckle. He raised his eyebrow at her, but she continued. "Something blond, blue-eyed, kinda cute…muscular." Her hand continued to run along his belt stopping at his phone. Unclipping it she turned and tossed it on the living room couch behind her. "You wouldn't happen to have that would you?" she smiled wrapping her arms around his neck.

Danny wrapped his arms around her wais pulling her closer. "You know I think I might just have one of those lying around somewhere."

"Lucky me" she murmured their faces merely inches apart.

Danny leaned in kissing her very softly as Michelle helped him out of his suit jacket, tossing it on the couch with his phone. As their kissing became more passionate, and they stumbled around his apartment banging into walls, Danny's hands moved down Michelle's back and towards her legs. Without breaking the kiss he picked her up as Michelle wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her into his bedroom. However he almost dropped her when his dog who had been sitting on his bed barked, startling both of them. Michelle laughed as Danny put her down, picking his dog instead and placing him in the hallway.

"Sorry buddy, you're not allowed in this party." After shutting the door, he turned back to Michelle. "Now, where were we again?"


	9. Chapter 9

A few weekends later Michelle woke up, alone in Danny's bed. Sighing, she rolled over to check the clock; 11:00am, she hadn't slept that late in a while. Retrieving her undergarments among the scattered clothing the two of them had discarded the night before. She made her way into the adjoining bathroom, washing her face and rinsing her mouth of possible morning breath. She had originally assumed that Danny was on call, and left before she had woken up, but a loud 'clank' followed by a string of expletives in Italian led her to believe otherwise. Not feeling like putting her dress back on, she decided to wear Danny's button down from the day before. Leaving some of the top buttons open and rolling the sleeves up past her elbows she walked into the kitchen to find Danny in a pair of basketball shorts, cooking some breakfast. He hadn't noticed her yet, so she crept up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist she kissed the back of his neck.

"Morning sleepy head." Danny said turning around to kiss her properly. He smiled at her appearance, amazed at how one woman could look so attractive in everything she wore; her tousled hair and slightly smudged eye makeup only adding to her appeal. Smiling she ruffled Danny's hair and then Michelle jumped onto the counter adjacent to the stove, her legs dangling off the counter. "I don't usually like women who dress like men, but I think you're gonna have to start wearing my shirts more often."

"Well that's good, because I was going to suggest that you not wear shirts anymore."

He laughed at her comment and went back to cooking, by accidentally burning his hand. "Mother—"

Michelle giggled getting down and taking some ice out of the freezer. She rubbed the cubes on Danny's burnt fingers. "I figured out of all three meals you could cook for a girl, you'd be the best at making breakfast."

Danny glared at her grabbing some of the ice and tossing it down the back of her shirt. Squealing from the cold she caught the ice and threw it at Danny's back, she missed and he turned around sticking his tongue out at her in response. Rolling her eyes she returned to her previous spot on the counter.

"Oh, I went and took Rascal for a walk and fed him, since I was going out anyway." He said handing her a plate and taking a seat on the stool to her right.

"Aww thanks. Aren't you all gentlemanly today." She teased leaning over to kiss his cheek.

"Yeah, yeah, my mother raised me well, what can I say."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After they had finished eating and were collecting their plates Michelle's phone started to go off.

"Spencer."

"Hey kid."

"Hey, CJ." She laughed leaning against the counter.

"So I got some extra Cyclones tickets from my friend for today, do you and Danny want to come? It's gonna be me, Don, Kylie, Ritchie and Mel."

"Hold on, let me ask him—Danny do you want to go to a Cyclones game today with CJ, Don, Ritchie and their better and more attractive halves?"

"I resent that!" CJ shouted through the phone.

Danny laughed placing the dishes in the dishwasher. "You know me, if it's baseball I'm in."

"Yeah, we'll come."

"Ok, the game starts at 5 and then we'll go grab some pizza, and the usual."

"Alright, I'll call you when we get there then."

"Later munchkin."

"Oh no, don't you start with that nickname."

"Blame Don, he said it on the phone to me this morning."

"Whatever, see you later gator." She said hanging up the phone and placing it back on the counter.

"So…munchkin huh?" Danny smirked walking towards her.

"Don't even go there buddy."

He laughed and put his hands on either side of the counter behind her. Placing a kiss on her exposed collar bone in between each word, "I…think…it's…quite cute…actually."

"You're lucky you're cute." She mumbled tilting her head so more of her neck was exposed.

"So you keep saying." He smiled pulling away from her slightly. "So what time is the game?"

"five."

"five hmm…well it's like 12 now, so that gives us quite a few hours before we even have to start thinking about getting ready." Danny stated playing with the buttons on the shirt Michelle was wearing.

She laughed "So that's what you've got on your mind."

"Not my fault, that you look so sexy in my shirt and your underwear…what else am I supposed to think about?"

"I dunno" she responded, her lips grazing his ear. "Movies or something?" Michelle smirked lightly pushing him off her and walking towards his bedroom.

"Movies or something, huh?" Danny said catching up to Michelle and throwing her over his shoulder. "I'll show you _something_." He muttered carrying her back into his bedroom.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a crazy game, around 9:30 that night the whole gang along with Ron and his wife Rachel were gathered at their favorite bar in Brooklyn. While the guys were at the bar discussing sports with the bartender, Pete, the girls had gone to play a game of pool, giving them the opportunity to bug Michelle.

"Alright Michey, if you dump this guy I'll hurt you." CJ's girlfriend Ashley said after hearing about their first official date in Little Italy and missing her shot.

"I mean really, we all saw the way you guys are at the game. It's almost sickening how perfect you guys are for each other" Rachel stated.

"I can't dump someone I'm not technically dating." Michelle laughed sinking her second shot in a row.

"Oh please, don't try and evade the subject with technicalities." Mel, Ritchie's spunky girlfriend said.

"Well I mean, obviously I like him, there's no way I'd let anyone I didn't like meet you nutters. Unless of course I wanted to get rid of him, cause that would definitely do it."

"Har, har, har. Just expect a huge I told you so at your wedding." Mel teased.

"I can live with that." Michelle joked, sinking the 8 ball and winning the 2nd game in a row for her team. "Now I'm going to get myself another drink, anybody want anything?"

"Another Cosmo? Do you want me to come with you?" Kylie asked.

"Nah, I'm good, I'll see you guys back at the table the boys have migrated to."

"Hey Pete, busy night?" Michelle asked as she walked up to the frazzled bartender.

"You have no idea...hang tight for a sec, I'll be right back."

Lost in thought about what the girls had been saying she didn't even hear the guy next to her ask a question. "Hmm?" she asked still in a daze.

"I guess next time I try to hit on a girl I should make sure she's listening" the guy laughed and Michelle did too, she had to give him credit for at least having a sense of humor about it.

"Alright I'm back, Miche what are you having?"

"A Cosmo and a mohito please" Pete nodded and turned to the guy.

"And for you?"

"2 Coronas and 2 martinis dry. Oh and put the lady's drinks on my tab."

"Alright…" Pete said raising an eyebrow at Michelle and going to make their drinks.

"Oh, well thank you, err you didn't have to do that." She fumbled, trying to figure out what to say.

"No need to thank me, but if you and your other female friends feel like joining us as a way of making it up to me I'm sitting over there."

"Ah, ok, well- "

"It's ok, I understand, can't blame a guy for trying though. I usually don't see pretty women like you unless they're in my dreams." He smirked taking her hand and kissing it.

Michelle held back the urge to cringe, and somehow took her hand back without seeming to rude, hoping Pete would come back really soon with her drinks.

"I wouldn't look now Danny, but some guy at the bar is definitely trying to get with Michelle." Don said taking a sip of his beer and nodding in the direction of the bar. Danny looked over and instantly had the urge to go over and tell the guy what he thought he could do with his cheesy kiss on the hand move, but then remembered that he and Michelle weren't technically dating, that hadn't gotten to discuss that part yet, and stopped himself, unsure of what to do.

This guy had been throwing non-stop cheesy lines at Michelle, and trying to be polite since he paid for her drinks she forced a smile.

"Hey." A thick Brooklyn accent stated from behind her.

"Hiya." Michelle beamed, relieved to have an excuse to get away from this guy, but also kind of giddy that it was Danny who came to her "rescue".

"Can we help you buddy?"

Clearly not amused, Danny turned to face the guy raising an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, for starters you can stop hitting on my girlfriend." He grabbed the 2 drinks Pete had come back with in one hand and wrapped the other around Michelle's waist.

"Well if you get sick of being with this zero, I'll be your hero…you know where I'm sitting, babe."

Michelle smiled "thanks but I don't date sleazy guys who use bad pickup lines…Good to go hun?" she asked Danny.

"Yeah, I'd say we're done here." He smirked as the guy huffed back to his table, defeated, as they weaved their way back to the table.

"So…I'm your girlfriend now?" Michelle questioned raising an eyebrow at Danny.

"Well…I mean, we have been…you know–"

"It's ok I kinda like the idea of you being my boyfriend."

Danny smiled and kissed her cheek "Good, cause I wasn't really gonna take it back if you said no."

She laughed as they had finally made it back to their table, handing Kylie her Cosmo and accepting her drink from Danny, she smiled reaching her arm around his back and resting her hand in one of his back jean pockets.

"Well that took long enough, what'd you do stop in the bathroom for a quickie?"

"CJ, please, spare us the mental images." Ron commented.

"Agreed" Both Don and Ritchie added.

"Pshh….you're just jealous." Michelle joked winking at CJ.


	10. Chapter 10

All characters belong to CBS, and some dialogue is from the Episode: _Hung out to Dry _so don't sue me, eh? as a side note, I didn't notice it in the episode but check out the letters of the sorority…kinda funny

* * *

"Feeling right at home, eh Miche?" Don quipped as they walked into a frat house they got called to.

"Are you implying I made my way around the fraternity circuit Flack?"

"Well…"

"Don!" she gasped, giving him a good whack on the arm.

"Kidding, kidding. But you can't deny that we used to party it up pretty hard in college."

"Touché…but I hope we were never _this_ bad." She laughed looking around at the scattered passed out half naked kids.

"Hey, check out coconut boy over there…that's a pretty small coconut to be –"

"You're bad, Flack."

"You love it. I'll take upstairs."

"Oh sure, leave me with coconut boy after you make that comment." Michelle muttered as Flack wandered upstairs.

--

About a half hour later Stella and Mac showed up at the crime scene. "College tuition 40,000 room & board 10,000, puking and passing out on your parents' dime, Priceless. Were you ever in a fraternity in college?" Stella asked.

"No, but I went to plenty of parties. I don't remember ending up like this though"

"What do we got?" Stella asked coming up the stairs and meeting Flack at the door.

"Amy Feilder, 22 yrs old and a member of Sigma Theta Delta. Britney and Kevin came up to do the nasty, instead they discovered the nasty. Decapitated and no sign of the head either."

Mac looked at Don in disbelief, "He took the head with him?" Flack nodded. "The base of the head appears to be burned. Explains the smell"

"Witnesses?" Stella asked and before Flack could answer continued "...Sober ones anyway?"

"Nah I waited for you to get her before I started my interviews. Looking forward to that too, by the way. I swear to you if one of them calls me bro."

"Danny will help you and Michelle on that."

"Alright, good luck with, uh, this whole mess, I'm gonna go deal with the greeks."

"So, I guess this is what they mean by higher education." Mac quipped.

Downstairs, Danny, Michelle and Flack were interviewing the less drunk of the crowd.

"It's called Edward 40 hands, you know like Edward Scissor hands, but with 40s…" a Hawaiian shirt clad guy with two 40oz beer bottles taped to his hands.

"Get outta here…" Don responded getting more and more frustrated.

"Yeah seriously, that's really what they call it."

"No, I mean get out of my face. I never want to see you again..."

"Whatever Bro." the guy shrugged walking away.

Hearing the end of the conversation Michelle walked over to Don, "Alright, take a deep breath there Donnie."

"Miche, let me just put him in lockup for public intoxication or something."

"I know, too bad being an idiot isn't a crime. You should have heard the pickup lines I was getting from one of the guys. 'Are you sure you're a cop because you just stole my heart' Oi"

"You're telling me, the amount of booze at this party would definitely kill way more than its fair share of brain cells. Come on, let's go see if your boyfriend killed anyone yet."

"Did you see her go upstairs?" Danny asked a somewhat less drunk girl sitting against the stairs.

"Yeah…yeah…she went upstairs."

"You did. Ok, was she with anybody? A guy or one of your sisters?"

"I don't have any sisters." She giggled.

"No, one of your sor-or-ity sisters?"

"Oh, I'm not in a sorority, I just come for the parties."

Danny sighed, "You can go."

"How's it going, _bro_?" Michelle teased getting Danny's attention.

"Please do not start with that." Don laughed. "So did you find anything out?"

"Other than coconut and grass skirts is never a good idea?"

"Come on, let's get you boys some coffee" Michelle said wrapping her arms around their midsections and leading them out of the house.

--

Early the next day Flack was called out to Central Park.

"You guys ready for this?" he smirked as Stella and Mac approached.

"Who called it in Flack?" Stella asked.

Pointing behind him, at a man in a sparkly pink spandex outfit holding a dog Don responded, "Richard Simmons Back there took a break from Jazzercising to notice that his dog was digging under a rock, but it wasn't for a bone."

"He buried it under a rock…?" Mac asked

"Good a place as any, I figure."

"There's gotta be a message, everything's a message in this crime" Stella pondered out loud.

Meanwhile across town Danny and Michelle were talking to Shane Casey, one of the more sober kids at the party who seemed to know a lot about Amy and the encoded t-shirt she was found in.

"Kode-kon, yeah this shirt is definitely not part of the series" Shane stated while looking at a picture of the shirt.

"What do you mean series?" Michelle asked

" It's called edoc laundry"

"You might wanna think about doing some laundry" Danny mumbled.

"Hey I got a whole system going…ah here" Shane said pulling out one of his edoc laundry t-shirts, "There's codes hidden in the designs"

"All Lies…" Michelle said while examining the shirt.

"Pretty cool. huh?"

"Alright so these numbers and symbols spell out words. What do you do with them?" Danny asked.

"It's a password to an online murder mystery. you type in the code, and you get another piece of the fictitious murder mystery. With each shirt you get farther along"

"How many shirts are there?"

"8 so far, and I have them all."

"Where'd you buy them?"

"There's a guy in Washington Sq. Park who sells them."

"Washington Sq. Park it is." Michelle commented causing Danny to sigh "We can get lunch right after, I promise Messer."

--

"Ohh, Smart cops, with shirts for 30…what an ass." Danny grumbled over his sandwich.

Michelle laughed and took a sip of her soda. "Come on you can't deny you didn't really care for cops when you were that kid's age. Although, I wouldn't have faulted you for by accidentally ruining a couple of his shirts."

"You couldn't have told me that a half hour ago?" Danny said avoiding getting swatted by Michelle's hand as he stole a big gulp of her soda. "Come on we should get back before Mac realizes I took a lunch altogether."

"So uh what are you doing this weekend?" Michelle asked as Danny was driving.

"Nothing as of right now, but I'm guessing I'm about to have plans"

"Well, you know how my family and Flack's family get together every Sunday afternoon. So, would you like to come…I mean Kylie is going to go, and my brothers will be there with girlfriends, wives and kids. So you won't be alone or anything, and I mean my parents will–"

"Whoa whoa, take a breather," Danny laughed placing his right hand on Michelle's thigh. "Yeah, I'll go."

"Really? Ok, because it's not a mandatory thing or whatever. I just – I get so nervous about asking guys this kind of thing. It hasn't really gone well in the past. They freak out and…well you know" Michelle confessed and then turned to look out the window.

They were at a stop light so Danny lightly turned her head to make her face him. "Hey, I get it. I know you're not proposing. And believe me when I tell you, if I'm not freaked out by it I don't think anyone should be."

Michelle smiled, giving him a quick peck on the lips "You're amazing, you know that?"

"Nah, I just like you" he said kissing her one more time before going back to driving as the light changed "plus I already met your brothers and they don't want to kill me so how bad can it be?"

--

Stella and Mac were working out more of the encoded words and images when Danny walked in.

"We need to identify the last two figures." Stella stated.

"The skull…dead…underworld. Who ruled the underworld?" Mac asked

"Hades"

"The Winged Figure, I'm not sure about though…could be Hermes"

"The Messenger god" Stella agreed.

Hearing the last part of the conversation Danny added, "That's Hypnosis the god of sleep…What didn't think I knew my Greek mythology did ya?" He continued at their raised eyebrow responses "Alright, I pinched a guy for selling opium my first year on the job. His dime bags had that logo on. He called himself hypnosis 'cause he said his products lulled his customers to sleep"

Mac nodded in approval, "Add it to the board."

"So is this guy going all Da Vinci Code on us? What do these numbers mean?"

"That's what we're still trying to figure out; we have no clue of the order either."

Mac was silent before responding, "It's a docket number. Rearrange the letters in kode-con and you get DOCKET NO."

"So it's a Queens - QN 2003, the last 8 numbers should be the case. There's hundreds and hundreds of those" Danny stated

"Well let's get it running through the computer."

A few hours later they had finally figured it out, Shane Casey, the edoc laundry know-it-all was behind the murders. He was trying to rectify his brother's name, who he believed was wrongly jailed for a crime he didn't commit. The team had gone to notify his next victim but ended up chasing Shane down. Danny and Flack had just brought him in when Michelle came bursting into the lab. "Mac, Stella, we got problems. Big ones. Shane Casey just escaped."

--

It had been a long few days, especially since no one had any off time, but most of the team decided to go out for an early drink before they called it a night.

"Alright Sheldon, tell me something I'd never guess about you" Michelle asked the usually composed doctor turned CSI.

"I dabble in drag competitions" Hawkes responded taking a sip of his beer. The entire team fell silent out of shock, Flack almost choked on his drink. "Oh come on guys, drag-offs? I'll allow you to blame it on the lack of sleep this time"

"The doctor is in the house" Flack joked.

"Alrighty, as much as I would love to see where this conversation is going, I'm gonna head out. I need some major shut eye, you coming Spencer?" Danny asked

"Yeah, good night fellas and Stella; try and get some sleep" Michelle said her good-byes as Danny retrieved her jacket.

Even though it wasn't that late, they were both pretty tired so Michelle and Danny took their time walking from the train station to their respective apartments.

"So, Michelle"

"Yes Daniel?"

"It's still kind of early you know. And I have an afternoon shift and you have an afternoon shift…so"

"So, you think we're going to make up for all of this lack of sleep? Me too."

Danny raised an eyebrow at her, but continued "No, well yes, but how about a sleep over, especially since I know how much you love snuggling with me."

"Did you just say snuggle? You must be tired" Danny glared and Michelle laughed at his expression "Ok. But at my place, my new mattress came and it's fabulous"

"So the squeaky bed is gone?"

"You know it didn't squeak until after you showed up" Michelle retorted.

"And I'm proud of it"


	11. Chapter 11

please feel free to comment and all that...let me know what you want more or less of! :D thanks

p.s. thanks to everyone who reviewed the last one

* * *

Danny and Don had early shifts Thursday and decided to get in a few games of basketball before heading home.

"So I hear you're coming to Sunday brunch." Don remarked as they cooled down against the bleachers.

"Yup. Should I be worried…?" Danny asked his friend.

"Not really, I mean you already passed the test with her brothers and me, and that's probably the worst one. Plus my family knows you too. So don't worry about it too much."

"I have to impress her parents though, and that can't be easy."

"You know I've never seen you this worked up about a girl before" Don smirked "you must really like her, which I have to say I can't really be mad about"

"Well I haven't had to meet a girl's parents in quite a while, you know? It's like being back in high school"

"I guess one night stands don't really offer that after effect."

Danny threw his sweaty towel at Don, hitting his friend in the face "hey, be nice."

"Yeah, yeah, alright I guess I deserve that one." Don laughed "But really Danny, you've been a good of mine friend since we first met, but Michelle's like my little sister, so if you break her heart, I'll have to hurt ya"

Danny smiled at his friend, "I figured. As far as I'm concerned though, that won't be necessary…so how are things with Kylie?"

"Good, great actually…I think I'm gonna ask her to _moveinwithme_" Don added rather quickly.

"What was that?"

"I'm going to ask her to move in with me…"

"Think she'll say yes?"

"I sure hope so."

"Nah, I'm sure she will." Danny laughed and patted his friend on the back, "just listen to us, we're talking about girls and being in legitimate relationships….what happened?"

"We're growing up and getting old, that's what happened" Don laughed.

"Yeah well I'm still not too old to beat you in basketball. I believe I won 15 to 12."

"Oh yeah, well I'm not too old to go for another round"

"First to 15 it is" Danny said grabbing the ball and heading back onto the court.

--

A few hours later Danny had showered, put on a pair of sweats and plopped down on his couch, his dog jumped up next to him. Staring absentmindedly and petting his dog he came to a decision "I'm in way over my head aren't I?" his dog just barked and licked his face. "You're no help at all…Come on, I have an idea, let's go for a walk"

--

Michelle, exhausted, had just gotten home from the precinct when her cell rang, "Spencer?" she yawned, not even checking the caller ID, but hoping it wasn't anyone asking her to come back to work.

"Hey, hey sleepy head"

"Mmm hello to you too Mr. Messer"

"Mr. Messer, not sure if I like that, but it's kinda hot at the same time" as he said it he could see her rolling her eyes at him "and don't roll your eyes at me Ms. Spencer"

Michelle laughed "you know me all too well…so what are you up to?"

"Well I'm kind of in the mood for takeout and a movie tonight, fancy keeping me company…I'll even let you pick the movie"

"You mean I don't have to cook and I get to spend time with my boyfriend...sounds good to me"

"Glad to hear it, come over whenever you're ready babe"

"Ok, see you in a few" Michelle said hanging up her phone and tossing it onto her couch as she kicked off her shoes. "Hmm, now where are my sweats?"

A half hour later Michelle had showered, changed into a pair of snug navy sweat pants from Victoria's Secret that Danny had mentioned he really liked and a gray t-shirt. She grabbed Rascal and picked out a movie. Then stopped by the deli on the corner to pick up a 6-pack of Danny's favorite beer because she knew he had forgotten to buy himself some and then headed over to his apartment.

Michelle smiled when Danny answered the door in just his sweats and no shirt "Well I'm glad I didn't get dressed up"

"Hey buddy, you're such a good boy, yes you are" Danny said, bending down to pet Rascal before the dog ran into his apartment. "Hiya, what's in the bag?" He kissed her cheek taking the bag from her and walking into the apartment he continued "I got takeout from that Chinese place we really like on 3rd"

"Just a 6-pack"Michelle said as she shut the door and followed him into the kitchen.

Danny smiled pulling the beer out of the bag and putting it into his fridge. He then walked towards Michelle who was leaning against his kitchen counter. "So before I give you a proper kiss hello, which by the way is depending on this, what movie did you select for this evening?" Danny smirked stopping next to her.

"Oh you know, just a really great, manly, movie" she smiled handing him the DVD case

"Pretty in Pink?! And you were doing so well" Danny teased

"I figured it was worth a try…nah, I just bought _Transformers_ the other day and I want to watch that" Michelle laughed handing him a second DVD case.

"Ooh that was sneaky" he teased placing his hands on either side of her on the counter so they were facing each other.

"So did I pass the test for a kiss Romeo?" she asked her hands playing with the drawstring of his sweatpants.

"Absolutely" He smirked pulling her close and kissing her quite passionately. Not breaking the kiss Michelle lifted herself backwards onto the counter and pulled Danny closer to her, further deepening the kiss. After a few minutes Danny pulled away and just smiled, staring at her.

Michelle tilted her head sideways and raised an eyebrow at his action. "What?" she giggled as his expression, it was a mixture of happy and lost in thought which resulted in a half smile and far away eyes.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about something…what are you laughing at?" He said tickling her sides.

Michelle only laughed harder "You - just – made - the most adorable face - that's all…ok, ok food time I'm hungry" she continued laughing while trying to get him to stop tickling her.

"Fine…" Danny stopped reluctantly, kissing the top of her forehead and helped her down off the counter, "you wanna grab some forks, a beer, and whatever you want to drink? I'll get the plates and other stuff"

"So how was your day?" Michelle asked walking into his living room.

"Pretty good, nothing really to do today, which is a good thing for the city I guess. And then Flack and I played a couple of games of basketball after work. How was your day?" He responded while putting the DVD in and turning the lights down.

"It was ok, kinda tiring…sometimes I forget how many obnoxious people they are in NY. But this is pretty much making up for it. Somehow you knew exactly what I wanted to do tonight." She laughed as Danny joined her on the couch.

"Mmm…so I got you something, it's not really a big deal, but for me it's a step I'm not really used to taking" he said grabbing a small envelope off the table behind him and handing it to her "basically, I really like you. A lot more than any other girl I've ever dated and so I wanted you to have that"

Michelle bit her lip anxiously, as she opened the envelope, "A key to your apartment?" Danny nodded "Aww Danny, thank you, this means a lot." She smiled, leaning over to kiss him. "This also means you're kinda stuck with me now"

"Too late to take it back, I guess" Danny laughed kissing her again and then settling in with a plate of beef and broccoli and fried rice.

After they had finished eating Danny leaned back on the sofa, his feet resting on the table. Michelle curled up next to him, resting her head against his bare chest. Danny wrapped an arm around her kissing the top of her head periodically as she ran her hands lightly across his chest. Not even half way through the movie they both fell asleep.

Danny woke up on the couch a few hours later, rubbing his eyes he checked his watch "1:45…Michelle?" he said trying to wake her up, but to no avail, she only snuggled closer to him. Danny laughed picking her up cavalier style and carried her to his bedroom.

Michelle stirred as Danny placed her on the bed. "Mmm, I love you too Danny Messer" she mumbled into the pillow.

Danny was confused for a second but then noticing that she was still asleep, he disregarded it and tucked her in. After setting an alarm he crawled into bed next to her. Not able to fall asleep right away Danny stayed up thinking about his relationship with Michelle. He had been in relationships before but none that had gotten this serious so fast. It had only been a little over a month, but at the same time he was still strangely comfortable with it. The comfort part was the thing that scared him. He wasn't afraid of commitment or anything; he just hadn't been in this situation for a while. Michelle stirred slightly turning over so she was front to front with Danny. A smile crept onto his face as he watched her, finally coming to a resolution….why fight it right?

"Love you too Michelle Spencer" Danny whispered in her ear kissing the top of her head and protectively wrapping an arm around her, hopefully drifting off to sleep.


End file.
